Loopy Lovegood
by Trieo
Summary: Harry and Hermione approached a distraught Luna after the Battle of Hogwarts. They made her a promise to not abandon her, a promise that turns out to be more than they bargained for. Will they come up with a way to fix things before they all go loopy? Time loop, long loops. HP/HG
1. Chapter 1: Loopy Luna Lovegood

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Harry Potter or any associated characters.

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**A/N:** Welcome to the first chapter of Loopy Lovegood

Personal disclaimer:

I do not have any beta readers for this story so spelling and grammatical errors are unavoidable. If you find any, you are very welcome to send me a PM pointing it out.

English isn't my first language, so any corrections on that front are very welcome as well

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**Chapter 1: Loopy Luna Lovegood**

**Great Hall - Hogwarts, Less than an hour after the defeat of Voldemort**

Harry had awoken minutes earlier, he was now making his way through the mass of people standing in the hall. Several people were on blankets on the floor, even more people were under blankets on the floor.

Harry finally spotted the one he was looking for. She was standing next to Arthur Weasley. Her hair matted with sweat, grime and blood. Clean streaks were visible on her cheeks where tears had washed dirt and grime away. Standing there in front of four people covered in white blankets, trying to console the man who had lost everything.

Ron had been the first victim of Voldemort. Back in their second year, the cave-in in the Chamber of Secrets had crushed his ribcage, squeezing the life out of his first friend. Ginny had never forgiven herself for the death of her brother. It had taken Harry and Hermione two years to get her to open up again.

Charlie was the second victim; Death Eaters had ambushed him while he was tending a dragon in Romania. The dragon got loose and killed Charlie as well as the Death Eaters. Not much was known about the circumstances, the dragons in the reserve did not leave much evidence about what had happened in the feeding frenzy that followed.

Bill died protecting Harry on the eve of his seventeenth birthday, struck by a killing curse cast personally by Voldemort as they attempted to move Harry to a safe location.

Harry went up to the two and looked at the four still forms on the floor. Bellatrix Lastrange had killed both of the twins. Mrs. Weasley had unleashed everything she had on the woman that killed her children and had after avenging them died from overloading her magic core.

She grabbed the lapels of his robe and cried into his shoulder. Arthur turned to the two young people standing next to him, tears rolling down his cheeks.

"Ginny..."

Arthur took a shuddering breath, and in a shaking and hoarse voice continued. "Ginny died ten minutes ago, they couldn't stop the venom." Arthur stopped for a moment, the pain and sorrow overcoming him for a moment. Ginny had been fighting Nagini together with Neville and Luna. "Neville got bitten as well. He, he is still alive, but they aren't sure if he will make it."

Hermione looked up, horror painted on her face, as she breathed. "Luna"

They quickly left the broken man; they needed to find their remaining friends. Their hands found each other, as they had with increasing frequency over the last year, ever since the horcrux hunt. They hadn't really talked about what happened, and now certainly wasn't the time.

They found Luna staring down at Neville. A witch was in the process of covering him with a blanket. Luna stood sobbing, her normally dreaming and light voice, hoarse and broke as she tried to say something between sobs. "No... No... It wasn't supposed to be like this... Everything is worse, what went wrong, they're all dead."

Hermione let go of Harry and ran over to Luna, pulling her into a hug before her knees would have given way.

"It's not fair; I'm going to be alone again." The blond girl sobbed into Hermione's sweater. "I finally had friends again, and now they're all gone."

The last statement struck home for Hermione, they had been to the Lovegood residence on the wild goose chase for the Deadly Hallows. The gigantic mural painted on the walls of Luna's room, depicting them with tiny gold script repeating friends over and over again linking all the portraits together. The feelings overcame Hermione as well; the smaller girl had been as alone as she had before coming to Hogwarts.

Harry seeing the last two of his friends breaking down crying against each other, in a gesture profoundly alien to him enveloped both in a hug. Harry had always had a hard time relating to others especially when it came to physical gestures, growing up with the Dursleys he simply didn't know how to react.

Hermione tensed a little as she felt the arm around her shoulders, she lifted her head a little and was about to turn it to face the boy who had wrapped his arms around both of them. The grey eyes of Luna interrupted her capturing her own, pain and sorrow evident, tears still making their way down her cheeks.

"I-I don't think I can handle being alone again..." Luna looked between both of them.

Hermione's features softened, she studied the face of the younger girl and resolved herself to keep being a friend worthy of the mural, then whispered in a soft voice. "You don't have to be. You still have us."

Harry echoed her sentiments. "We're still here Luna, we aren't going anywhere."

Luna looked at the two faces that were in close proximity to her own. "Do-do you mean that?"

Both gave a solemn nod.

A small tear rolled out the corner of her eye, as it landed on her cheek a soft blue glow suffused the trio, signifying a binding magical contract. Luna opened her mouth to say something, but was cut short by an intense pain wracking her body.

Silver particles were projected from her. Whirling around the three as the magic started moving faster and faster, the particles started landing on her two friends. Slowly at first but more and more silver glimmers filled the air around them, holding them in place with the out-worldly magic.

Both Harry and Hermione felt as if they were burning up, but were unable to scream, as it grew more intense. To Harry it felt close to the pain he had experienced when he were almost given a Dementor's kiss all those years ago.

Everything flashed silver for a moment before all sounds disappeared as everything went dark.

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**Harry, Time and place unknown**

Harry awoke with a gasp and quickly sat up; he banged his head into something and fell back down clutching his head. "Shite!" He spent a few minutes lying still; taking in his surroundings it was completely dark. A slight smell of dust and mold permeated the air.

The pain from having bashing his head against whatever that were, were slowly fading to a dull throb. Moments later his scar started throbbing as well, sending pulses of pain into his skull. A blinding pain shot through his skull and he fell unconscious.

He awoke to a distinct noise of a doorbell. Sitting up in a start, he banged his head again. "Bloody hell!" That was twice now; he was awash in a sea of pain.

He heard voices outside of the cupboard. '_Cupboard_... I am in the cupboard, what am I doing here? I haven't been in this thing for over seven bleeding years.' Forgetting the splitting headache for a moment as he fumbled for the lightswitch. Feeling a bit woozy, he sat up without banging his head against the shelving, fumbled for his glasses for a moment before blinking adjusting to the light from the naked bulb. Everything was strangely blurry, he briefly wondered if he had gotten a concussion, before turning his attention to the conversation outside the cupboard which was rapidly devolving into a full on shouting match.

An unknown male voice that sounded vaguely familiar boomed from the hallway. "He lives here does he not?"

"I will not have your kind here, GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!" Harry could just imagine the porky face of his uncle turning new and interesting shades of red.

An angry edge tinted the other voice. "BRING HIM OUT OF SO HELP ME I WILL..." The voice trailed off.

Harry pressed himself to the cupboard door trying to make out what was happening. He heard a small voice that he couldn't make out what was saying.

Suddenly the cupboard door flung open, Harry tumbled out. Woozy, head spinning and a massive headache on top of just tumbling to the floor had Harry disbelieve his eyes for a moment. A small blonde girl was pointing towards the cupboard. Behind her a tall blonde man with his face set in grim determination, swung his wand from the cupboard directly to the face of Vernon.

The blonde man sneered at Vernon, trying to control his temper he hissed more than spoke through his teeth. "You kept a child locked in a cupboard?!"

The girl put her arm on the chest of the wizard pointing his wand at Vernon. "Daddy... Please..." The angry features of the wizard relaxed a little, wand unwavering from the face of his Uncle.

Harry pressed his eyes shut for a moment gritting his teeth trying to make sense of it all, working through the headache. He righted himself and pushed off the floor, wobbling a bit as he stood, resorting to place a hand on the staircase to avoid falling.

The girl had stepped around his uncle. He blinked a few times. She was familiar; her voice was lighter and slightly squeaky. Her face rounder, but he recognized the long blonde hair and the almost dreaming look in her eyes. Not the girl her knew from moments ago covered in grime and blood who had been a friend for the last three years. No, a younger version was standing in front of him; he wasn't quite sure what was happening. She shot him a pleading look. "Luna..."

Relief washed over her face. "You remember me..." As Luna suddenly stopped standing three yards away and now had him wrapped up in a bear hug, almost clinging on to him like the world was going to end if she let go, settling her chin on his shoulder.

Harry's eyes narrowed, they were the same height.

"Thank you Harry..."

Harry was reeling, there was something completely off about this. "Luna... What is going on?" He suddenly managed to place the face of the man holding his uncle at wand point. "What is Xenophilius doing here? Why do you look like that? And-and..." His voice trailed off for a moment. "And what is wrong with my voice?"

Luna finally released him and took a step back, the small smile and dreaming look was back in full force, as she ran her hands over her cheeks drying her tears. "I will explain everything, but not here and not until we have gone see if Hermione also remembers me..."

"But..." Luna grabbed his shoulders and forcibly turned him towards the full-length mirror hanging in the hall.

His head swam at the movement then he saw himself. Not the teenager he had been earlier, but the scrawny child he had been before he started attending Hogwarts.

Luna whispered to him. "Details later." Before she in her normal voice continued. "Come, we're going to go find Hermione, I assume you know where she lives?"

Harry turned towards the door again and then stumbled, the world refused to align itself properly.

Luna looked at him with concern, then she reached out and brushed his hair away from his forehead, two angry welts were visible, one with a bit of blood smeared out around it from where the edge of the shelve had broken skin.

"DADDY!" Luna exclaimed with a hint of panic in her voice.

Xenophilius strode over to them, took a quick look, and then placed a hand on the shoulder of each of them. The world seemed to compress around them and the three were no longer in Privet Drive.

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**Harry, thirty minutes later, St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries**

Harry had a bad taste in his mouth after the potion he had been given. He had indeed gotten himself a concussion, thankfully there was a potion for that, magic truly was grand. When he had taken the potion, it felt like having a cooling cream applied directly to his throbbing brain.

With his head clear, he was running through the rather bizarre morning, Luna was a child again, so was he. Xenophilius didn't look as worn down as he had when they had met him while figuring the Deadly Hallows out. He mused that it might be time travel. That would certain explain the looks the nurse had given him. If it was, then this might have been the first time he would have been seen by the magic community, since that fateful day all those years ago. It probably had something to do with that strange magic that had coursed through them just hours earlier. A few things were warring with the conclusion, he had traveled in time before, so it was certainly possible; however they had traveled backwards in the same spot. Then there were the fact that they were younger as well, which didn't make sense at all. If Luna had not shown up, he would have convinced himself it was all something he had made up.

"Bollocks" He swore silently to himself, as he ran towards the waiting area where Luna was. They needed to get to Hermione fast, before she either had a breakdown or worse were shipped off somewhere by her parents. The Grangers weren't exactly the most rational people when it came to magic, and this would be before they had gotten the Hogwarts letter, he had been moved out of the cupboard when the letter first arrived.

As he arrived in the waiting, area Luna was standing with her arms crossed smirking at him. "Figured out we're in a hurry to get to Hermione's house did we?"

Harry gave a quick nod, the perceptive Ravenclaw, 'well... future Ravenclaw anyways', would of course have figured it out way before he would.

He walked over to Xenophilius who was holding out his right arm, Luna had already latched on to his left, and with that it was back into the void, feeling that sickening feeling of being compressed from all sides.

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**Shortly after, Outside of the Granger residence**

Harry stepped up to the door and rung the doorbell. He managed to ring a few times before the door was answered.

A very irate looking man was looking down on him. "Hello Mr. Granger, I was wondering if Hermione is home?"

The man scowled at him. "Who are you?"

Harry gestured towards Luna. "We're her friends, sir. We would very much like to speak with her."

Mr. Granger frowned. "I haven't seen you before; in fact I don't recall Hermy ever talking about friends, much less that she would have them visit today. Besides that, she had been acting odd all morning and is in no state to entertain guests."

Luna joined Harry on the doorstep. "Please sir, perhaps you could tell her that, Harry Potter" As she gestured to the raven-haired boy next to her. "and Luna Lovegood." pointing to herself." Is here to see her."

Mr. Granger let out a sigh. "Alright then, just wait here." He wasn't entirely comfortable with letting the door be open, that man with the shoulder long hair was giving him some strange vibes, and was wearing something that hadn't been fashionable since the sixties. However, it would be rude to close the door in the face of people, especially if they were indeed friends of his daughter. His wife had often expressed her concern about her daughter being isolated in school.

Harry and Luna watched the father of their friend ascend the stairs in the entrance, up to what would presumably be Hermione's room. Moments later, they heard a yell from up there, and a missile with brown hair trailing behind it zoomed down the stairs emitting a sound that was on the edge of what the human hearing could pick up.

Harry and Luna found themselves sitting on the doorstep. Hermione had instead of taking the last few steps towards them, launched herself into the hug. As they had collapsed into a heap, they could hear Hermione more chanting than whispering. "It's real, I'm not crazy. It's real, I'm not crazy."

Hermione eyes locked onto the green eyes of Harry as she pulled back from hugging the two. She hovered for half a second with their faces a few inches apart, before sitting up on her knees, poking Harry on his shoulder. "You guys have no idea how relieved I am. I thought I had gone barmy."

"Sorry it took so long." Luna replied.

Harry blinked; it had been an hour at most.

Hermione shifted into what Harry had come to call her inquiry mode. If they weren't sitting on the step in front of the door like they were. He was sure she would have put her hands on her hips, tilt her head a little, narrow her eyes and then bombard them with questions. "What is going on?"

Luna shook her head slightly, and then mouthed "Not here."

Hermione's eyes widened a little, gave a small nod, and then got up off the ground. She turned to her father. "Dad, would it be okay if I went to hang with my friends today?"

Mr. Granger was about to open his mouth when he felt a hand on his shoulder, he turn his head and caught the eyes of his wife. Who was shooting him a look that promised consequences if he refused. "Right" as he turned towards them. "Supper is at seven."

Hermione hugged her father and turned around to face Luna. Harry and Xenophilius had already made their way down the path of the front lawn and was standing on the curb.

Xenophilius was about to raise his wand, but was stopped as Harry grabbed his arm. Wouldn't do to call the bus here if they haven't received the letter yet. Instead, they set off down the street to call the Knight Bus outside of the view.

Hermione and Luna were trailing a good few yards behind. Luna leaned towards Hermione as they walked and whispered. "You almost kissed him." As per default Luna manner, it was a statement rather than a question.

Hermione gave a terse nod; she had indeed almost done that. The blonde girl was as always annoyingly perceptive. Keeping up with the whispering she replied. "Barely managed to stop it, would have been bad, right in front of my father, he would have grounded me until I hit thirty. Not to mention it's rather strange with us being children again."

Luna let out a small sigh, "I know what you mean." Hermione quirked an eyebrow at her. "Neville... He is the small boy that has crippling self-confidence issues and not the hunk that slew a snake five times his size." Luna flashed a small smile, and managed to whisper in her normal dreamlike way. "Oh well... We have time." And with another small sigh muttered. "Lots and lots of time."

Luna noticed that Hermione was staring at Harry, and broke into a grin, she never had a chance to poke her about this before. "It's completely blatant that you more than just like him, you know."

Hermione drew a deep breath and exhaled. "Yeah, I know. I was finally getting somewhere with him and now _this._" Hissing the last word.

Harry turned to look at them since the last word was high enough in volume to travel to the two in front. Hermione felt her face flush a little. Harry just shrugged and turned again, they had finally come to a spot where hedges blocked the views from the houses in the rather nice neighborhood Hermione resided in.

"Daddy, could you hide that he is you know... Harry Potter?" Luna's tinkling voice sounded from behind them as the two girls caught up.

Xenophilius frowned for a moment, flicked his wand and hit Harry with a glamour that hid his scar and gave him shoulder long blonde hair. "That ought to do it." He held up his wand and the Knight Bus appeared with a loud crack and a blast of wind. "Four to the Leaky Cauldron please."

"'Allo lads n' lasses, four to the cauldron, ya heard that Ernie? The Leaky Cauldron." Stan looked at the three children. "Didn' know yer had a son mister Lovegood."

Luna jumped in. "He is my cousin, twice removed"

Stan looked at her. "Ah" turned and walked off to the front of the bus as they had been seated in some surprisingly comfortable armchairs.

* * *

**The Time Traveling Three and Xenophilius, Private room, The Leaky Cauldron**

Xenophilius had entered the room as the last person; he regarded the young boy who had sat down on the bed next to Hermione. 'He looks dangerously malnourished and kept locked in a closet. Dumbledore has a lot to answer for, allowing a boy to be treated like that.' He let out of a sigh as he pinched the bridge of his nose. His daughter had been right to urge him to go there as soon as possible. He wasn't quite sure how she knew what was going on or how she knew the boy, but it was blatant that they had known each other for a while. He had originally gone along with Luna's request because she had been lively this morning, something he hadn't seen in a year since his wife had died. It was a ago year to the day, so he had initially thought it had something to do with that. Then she had been running her mouth about friends, after having withdrawn into herself for the last year, he thought that she had finally snapped. He had just gone along to humor her, but then it turns out that she did have not just one but two friends. When he realized that, the boy-who-lived actually was her friend seeing him treated like that had stroked the fire of his rage even further. If it wasn't for the emergency trip to St. Mungo's, he would probably have done something terrible to that pig of a man that called himself Vernon.

He had bought Harry some breakfast as they arrived at the inn, the boy probably hadn't had anything to eat since the previous evening and it was almost ten in the morning.

It was probably safe to leave the three children here, they couldn't go into Diagon Alley alone, but he needed to go have a word or two with a certain bearded wizard. "I've rented the room until tomorrow. Harry I would like for you to stay here until I have sorted something out with the one that was supposed to be in charge of you."

Luna rose from the chair she had been sitting in and put a hand on her father's arm. "Remember my request. Before you hop away think we could get a few wards on the room?"

Xenophilius shrugged, his daughter had always had some strange notions about things it couldn't hurt to humor her as he whipped out a few spells to protect the room.

Taking out a pinch of floo powder from his pocket he threw it into the fireplace. "Headmaster's Office, Hogwarts" Then stuck his head into the flames.

The last thing the three heard was "Right, coming through then." Before Xenophilius disappeared into the fire.

Hermione and Harry looked expectantly at Luna after the senior Lovegood had disappeared into the floo network. Finally, Hermione could not reign in her nature anymore. "What exactly is going on? Is this time travel? Why did it happen? How are we kids again?"

Which was as far as she got before Luna shot her a look so she could get a word in edgewise. "It doesn't seem to be as much time travel, as it is a time loop. I have been through it a few times. It always starts on this day. When it starts over varies, but I think it has either sometime to do with Voldemort or you Harry. It happens on the day Voldemort is defeated, or... if you die without having the stone Harry..."

Harry looked white as a sheet. That was a bit much to comprehend.

Luna looked passively at the two as they digested what she had just said, before continuing. "I suppose I should just start at the beginning, I'm not going to tell you everything that happened but I will tell you some rules I've made about this thing and about a couple of loops "

She moved her chair closer to the two who was looking at her with rapt attention. "First the rules. Rule One: Do not tell anyone about the time loops. A padded cell in St. Mungo's Spell Damage ward is a rather boring place to spend two years. Took me two loops to figure that one out, it becomes even more boring the second time."

She let out a small sigh. "Rule Two: Beware Dumbledore and _For The Greater Good_. Do not let on that you know about what is going to happen, if Dumbledore becomes suspicious of you he will act, a padded cell in the Department of Mysteries with Unspeakables to keep you company and prod you for four years is rather unpleasant."

Both Harry and Hermione looked at the girl in front of them with empathy at that rule. Hermione couldn't believe that Dumbledore would do such a thing.

Harry then told her about him manipulating Harry into sacrificing himself to stop Voldemort, which put things in perspective.

Hermione frowned for a moment before whispering. "The need of the many outweigh the need of the few."

Surprisingly Luna continued "Or the one."

Hermione looked the girl with in surprise. "Wha..."

Luna cut her off. "Spent some time learning about muggle stuff. Time is a commodity, and we have been given a blank cheque. It would be silly to not spend time absorbing as much knowledge as you can."

Harry grinned. "Spoken like a true Ravenclaw."

Luna laughed hard at that, and then shook her head at Harry before continuing with the rules. "Rule Three: Do not assume that because you did everything the same way last time that the outcome will be the same."

Hermione looked thoughtful at that. "It that because of the butterfly effect? I mean even if you're trying to do something the same way it has happened before, you are not the same person anymore and there is bound to be things that will be done slightly different, which changes everything else."

Luna gave a sad smiled at her friend. "Took me a few times to figure that one out."

Hermione looked at Luna is a soft expression. "You don't have to tell us about the loops if it's too painful."

"No, no, it's not that. I am happy you two are here, so I am not alone anymore. It makes me feel selfish though, now you guys might have to go through things again and again as well..."

Hermione was about to say something, but was cut off by Harry. "Luna it's not your fault, in fact I'm glad we're here as well. Trying to deal with all this alone, I'm sad we haven't been there for you until now."

Hermione chimed in. "It's true, we meant what we said _yesterday_. You are our friend! Who knows what happens to everything when you loop. There is no way to know how the universe works, time could continue on where you just disappear, you could be traveling to a parallel universe or even where everything but you is erased where you start over. The latter is a rather chilling thought, I like who I am and the thought that I might disappear and have done so several times is scary."

"Oof" Was all Harry managed to utter, before he for the second time in a day found himself being crushed in a bear hug from Luna. He took solace in the fact that Hermione looked like she had trouble breathing as well. Luna was surprisingly strong able to crush them like that with a single arm.

Luna broke into a huge smile as she sat back on the chair. "Thank you."

Luna proceeded to talk about attending Hogwarts before everything went loopy, how she had been sorted into Gryffindor. Hermione had just smiled at that, it made sense. How she become friends with Ginny, convincing her to get rid of the diary, only to have her go get it again when the compulsion was too much for her. How Harry had valiantly protected her from a Dementor during the express to school, by yanking her away from it, only to almost be kissed himself. Cheering for Harry in the Triwizard Tournament and helping Harry learn the Bubblehead charm. Fighting in Dumbledore's Army, then almost being killed in the Department of Mysteries. Dealing with the aftermath of Dumbledore's death, and then fighting in the battle of Hogwarts.

"The big events from outside of the school seems to repeat themselves somewhat consistently, but the outcome of each vary a lot it seems." As Luna finished telling about how things were between loops. "Of course I was ranting and raving when I woke up the day after the Battle of Hogwarts, which landed me in St. Mungo's for the first time. Rather unpleasant that place. Luckily, everything loops after just two years, after which I landed there again for another two years. On the third loop, I figured out why those loops only lasted two years. Apparently, since I wasn't there to get Ginny to throw away the diary, it had a much stronger hold on her and Tom Riddle killed you in the chamber Harry. I only found that out after the fact since the hat had sorted me into Ravenclaw for some reason."

She let out a small sigh. "It loops when you die, and it seems to loop when I die as well. I wake up and it is the next loop. It is a bad way to reset though dying is rather unpleasant. Especially some of the more violent methods like drowning, being hit by _Confringo_, or by _Sectumsempra_. The latter of which is especially nasty. Surprisingly _Avada Kedavra_ is the best way to die, it doesn't hurt or anything."

Hermione let out a small "eep" at the implication of Luna knowing firsthand how it is to die like that. Not to mention that it seemed like the first three examples were just picked at random, and not the full scope of what she had experienced.

The pained look on Luna's face told the two others that they probably shouldn't delve more into her experiences for now.

* * *

**Xenophilius, arriving at Dumbledore's Office**

Xenophilius dusted the soot off his cloth as he stepped into the Headmaster office of Hogwarts. "Headmaster thank you for seeing me on such short notice."

"Ah don't mention it Xenophilius, it sounded like it was urgent." The headmaster peered at the eccentric over his half moon glasses, as he gestured to the large comfortable chair in front of his desk.

Xenophilius quickly sat down. "I have come here about two issues to be exact. First, I would like to know if my daughter could get dispensation to start Hogwarts this year instead of the next; it is a matter of three days for the cutoff so I doubt that her age would pose a problem. I ask of this for two reasons, the first is that since my wife died a little over a year ago, she has been withdrawing into herself and I fear that the continued isolation isn't healthy for her. Which brings me to the second reason; this reason is also related to the second issue I am here to discuss with you. My daughter has made a friend that will be attending the school this year, I believe you're quite familiar with him, he lives in a small town called Little Whinging, at Privet Drive 4 to be exact."

The wizened Headmaster straightened in his seat as much as his old body was capable.

"I brought my daughter there to visit him this morning. Imagine the surprise when I found the person you claimed was in good hands, locked in a cupboard under some stairs. Not to mention horribly malnourished, the boy is nothing more than skin and bones." Xenophilius shot Dumbledore an angry look.

Albus stood up in protest. "Now wait a minute, he is supposed to be with his relatives. There is a protection on him that will keep him safe."

Xenophilius narrowed his eyes and likewise stood. "Ah a blood protection, protecting him against others, pity it doesn't seem to protect him against his own blood."

Dumbledore seemed to shrink at the words. He hadn't checked up on Harry, wanting him to have a normal childhood away from the fame, so he hadn't interfered. Had he gone wrong? He felt a slight headache coming on. "I assume you came here to do something about it..."

"I did, I would like to extend our hospitality to the first person my daughter has ever called a friend. We have a spare bedroom he could reside in for the rest of the summer, until he starts school later this year. I hope that you will also grant my daughter the boon of being able to attend this year instead of the next. I saw my daughter smile for the first time in a year today, and I fully believe that it would be beneficial for her to attend school with a friend."

The Headmaster sat down again and rifled through some papers on his desk. "Very well, I will allow Luna Lovegood to attend Hogwarts this year. Would I be right to assume that Harry Potter is no longer in Little Whinging? I would like to meet the boy before I decide anything about his living conditions; in case of having him living with you, I would also need to upgrade the warding of your house."

Xenophilius smiled. "That would be most welcome. I would request that we put off the meet until tomorrow however. He could use a good meal and a nights rest on a bed that isn't just a piece of plywood."

Xenophilius bid the Headmaster a good day and floo'ed back to The Leaky Cauldron, where he sat in the bar for a few hours before buying lunch to bring up to the kids.

* * *

**A/N**:

Right, going to cut it off there, because frankly the chapter length is spinning out of control. We have covered 4 hours of the day.

This fic will hopefully turn out to be different from the gazillion other timeloop stories out there, hope you will enjoy it.

Reviews much appreciated, questions about the story are better directed to PM's however.


	2. Chapter 2: The Inn Room

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Harry Potter or any associated characters.

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**A/N:** Welcome to the second chapter of Loopy Lovegood

Lots and lots of introspective and musings in this one, we're still introducing things as it were.

Personal disclaimer:

I do not have any beta readers for this story so spelling and grammatical errors are unavoidable. If you find any, you are very welcome to send me a PM pointing it out.

English isn't my first language, so any corrections on that front are very welcome as well

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**Chapter 2: The Inn Room**

**The Time Traveling Three, Harry's room in The Leaky Cauldron**

Harry was looking down at his empty plate. He briefly wondered if it was because he was back in the body that had lived on leftovers for ten years, or if it was in his mind since they hadn't eaten the day they had fought Voldemort. Either way he had inhaled his meal rather than just eating it. He looked at the two girls who were still eating. Hermione had abandoned her normal decorum and was shoveling in food much faster than Harry had ever seen, even when she was on a research kick. Luna was eating fast as well, but they had rarely eaten together so he wasn't sure if it was out of the ordinary.

Luna sensed that Harry was starting at her, looking up from her plate and with her mouth full. "wat?" Hermione looked like she was about to chide Luna for talking with her mouth full, but then blushed furiously instead when she noticed that she had been about to do the same.

"I have just eaten a full meal and then some, along with a small pie. I still feel like I could eat more, is this normal?" He looked at Luna.

Luna stopped eating for a moment and waved her hand dismissively in front of her. "Oh yeah, you're going to be crazy hungry for at least a week."

"Probably more for you, since you're so _skinny_." Hermione chirped as she poked him in the ribs.

"Ow, that wasn't very _nice._" As he poked her in the side, eliciting a squeal from the girl sitting next to him.

Luna quickly grabbed Hermione's plate, which had gone airborne, as she had jumped a little when she was poked. "Oh get a room you two."

Harry stared at Luna for a moment before flashing a grin. "I thought this was my room." Luna went wide-eyed as she quickly grabbed Harry's plate with her other hand.

"Wha..." Was all Harry managed before he was socked by a pillow to the side of his head toppling him over on the bed, after which Hermione proceeded to beat the stuffing out of him and the pillow in retaliation for poking her.

Luna cleared her throat, causing Hermione to look at her. Looking at the pillow in her hands, looking at Harry curled up into a ball laughing on the bed, then back to looking at Luna who was balancing a plate in her lap and one in each hand. The light voice was coming out in its full dreaming glory. "Got that out of your system?"

Hermione grinned sheepishly at Luna. "Quite. I think I needed that." Given Harry another whack for good measure, before putting the pillow down on the bed and grabbing back her plate to finish off the remaining food. "Haven't really had a lot of laughs this last year and a half. I feel... liberated somehow."

Hermione trailed off, _'liberated_, honestly?' She grimaced at the thought. She had always been good at words, spoken and written, but connecting those words to feelings was repeatedly proving difficult. Sometimes having access to a large vocabulary was a curse, stupid long complicated words that made even expressing simple feelings hard.

It had taken her five years to finally move forward with Harry. She had been completely tongue tied about her feelings. It had taken a hug before she finally managed to get her point across. Harry had hugged her exactly three times in the seven years they had known each other. She had hugged him plenty of times when her words had failed her, but he almost never returned the hug, only standing there frozen from the physical contact. The second time she had taken advantage of the hug, and well things had happened. They still hadn't talked about it, and now they might not talk about it at all. With the weirdness of them being children again, it might even take a long time, before she would be comfortable trying something like it again.

It was the first time Harry had hugged her, she had really acknowledged her feelings for him, and she had stuck by his side since then. She had later realized that she had a crush on him after he had been so brave against the troll. It was only after the Basilisk; she admitted to herself, it was more than friendship she had been after. Harry had been devastated and blamed himself for Ron's death; he had been there when she woke up in the hospital wing. Broken from the death of his first friend, mixed with relief to see her again had the boy clutched onto her. They had been crying against each other for over an hour before he finally pulled away.

It had taken five years between the two hugs. Her mind was still lingering the third, the arm around her less than twelve hours earlier. The third hug had been a reflection of the first one, one of grief and consolation.

That was a cheery thought, all the hugs she had managed to drag him into over the seven years.

Classics like "Oh, Harry!" whenever he brought up something about his life with the Dursley's or when he was blaming himself for all the wrong in the world. She was rather proud of that one; it did not require her to try to say something in the increasingly complex sentences her brain would be cooking up to comfort him.

She hugged him when she was sad as well; it worked very well for her. Even if he did not return the hug, the warmth and the closeness to him acted like a balm against anything that had hurt her. Almost anything anyways, but she would rather not dwell on that subject, _at all_.

She had been upping the ante these last few years, and it had been somewhat successful. He was not tensing up as much anymore, getting him over the aversion to physical contact was grating on her however. She had read that it was often the case for abuse victims, so she did not press the issue and instead just tried to ease him into it. Hermione Jean Granger was nothing if not persistent. For a chance with Harry, her first and best friend to be something more, she would keep on trying.

Disentangling herself from that line of thought for a moment, she looked up at Harry who had just turned back from placing his plate on the nearby table. Harry's eyebrows was furrowed as they wont to do, when he was thinking hard about something.

He smiled a little. "I think I know what you mean Hermione, like a huge weight has been lifted my shoulders. Everyone is alive again. Sirius is in jail, but that is about the only negative thing I can think off right now."

Hermione was a little shaken, not at what Harry had said, but rather that she had managed to think about all that without missing half a conversation. Like it so often happened when her brain took the reins and drove the cart down the road for whatever what caught its attention for a while. Okay, so sometimes, it would drive that cart off a cliff and she would find herself in the library with only five minutes left before the curfew. Fact of the matter was that while she thought quite fast, she normally did not think quite that fast.

One more thing to add to the growing list of questions Hermione was compiling in her head. Now that they were done eating, hopefully Luna could fill her in on some of them.

Harry grabbed Luna's shoulders, then exclaimed in a voice filled with exaggerated terror. "She is smiling, run Luna, save yourself!"

Hermione blinked a few times. "What?"

Harry grinned. "You're smiling that smile you always have on when you descend on a teacher after class with questions."

Hermione raised an eyebrow. "I really have a specific expression for that?"

Harry nodded. "You do, if we hadn't looped you could have confirmed it with Professor McGonagall or Professor Vector, since those are the two you torture the most."

That elicited a scowl from her. "Prat."

Luna started laughing as Harry sat down on the bed again. It only took a few seconds before Hermione had the smile back in full force. "These timeloops, do you know how to make them stop?"

Luna just shook her head. "Not besides that it has something to do with Harry and Voldemort."

Hermione frowned for a moment. "So, we don't actually know how to get out of the loops, which means we won't be able to know if a loop is the one that matters. Guess we will have to treat all the loops as the one that counts?" Luna just nodded, before Hermione continued. "We should spend time getting better then. If Voldemort has something to do with it, then we should focus on becoming good enough to beat him without people dying."

Harry smirked. "Trust Hermione to use any excuse to study."

"If we can kill him without people dying, and it still loops. I guess we will have to work another angle. Just hope we're not supposed to redeem him or something like that." Hermione shuddered a little at the last bit.

Luna just nodded; it was refreshing to hear other's thoughts on the subject. Getting through without anyone dying was impossible, at least in her experience and it had not been for lack of trying. It was a good start for a goal, as long as they did not know what would stop the loops.

"Speaking of studying, I noticed something. It's like I'm thinking faster..." Hermione mused aloud with a distant look on her face.

Harry look at her about to say something then closed his mouth again pausing for a moment. "Hmm... You are right Hermione, but it feels more like things are clearer than actually faster."

Luna was grinning at the two. "Took you a while to notice." She was genuinely surprised at how long it had taken both of them. The previous loop had been an interesting one; it was the only one, she had experienced where Ronald had died so early. The result had been interesting to say the least; Harry with his huge interest in all things magical had turned out to be a focused student. Without Ron to drag him down, Harry had instead chosen the same electives as Hermione, and driven by his only friend spent an inordinate time studying.

The two had the highest grade-average of their year on their owls and sixth year scores. Only class they had been beat in was Potions, but that hardly counted. Hermione had the highest grades seen in several decades, and Harry was not very far behind. Harry had actually managed to beat Hermione in History of Magic, his collapse had landed him in the hospital wing and he could take a make-up test at a later date. Hermione had been forced to sit the test, having been distracted by Harry collapsing, missed _two_ points from a perfect score. She had not made any actual errors, but in her haste to turn it in, she had smudged a line at the end. Without doing her usual quadruple check of the test, it had been turned in with the tiny amount unreadable.

The ripples the death of Ron had wrought were simply astounding. It had brought to light just how clever Harry actually was. 'Almost as clever as I am.' Luna mused for a moment, but the effect it had on Hermione was something else. That she had found a peer in Harry besides him being her best friend, had propelled Hermione to show just how frighteningly intelligent she was. Luna had no doubts that if they managed to get out of the timeloops and graduate, Hermione would be the figurehead for some drastic changes to the Magical Britain as a whole, and possibly becoming the greatest spellcrafter seen since the four founders or even Merlin. Assuming she won't go crazy at some point, which was a strong possibility. Luna would be the first to admit that she had a few episodes of what she had come to calling The Lemon and the Gin and Tonic moments over the years. Hopefully, since they were three now, they would keep each other reasonably sane. It was quite hard to pull yourself together after going off into the deep end, and St. Mungo's was a dreary place to spend so many years.

Luna turned her attention back to the two sitting on the bed in front of her. "Well I'm not quite sure what or how, but something about the loops makes your memories much clearer. What I have come up with is that it means your subconscious needs less time to sort things to form conscious thoughts, resulting in things seeming faster."

Hermione looked at the blonde with wide eyes, mouth hanging open a little in shock, spending a few moments before she composed herself. "I-I don't even know where to start, how is that even possible? The brain doesn't work that way at all, I..." Hermione trailed off, pinching the bridge of her nose.

Luna smiled, while looking at the ceiling and in a voice that was slightly more dreaming than normal. "Magic..." She looked at Hermione before continuing. "It's not everything, things you experience in the loop are like normal, things from the previous loops become clear after the loop. Only things you have paid attention to however." Sporting a wide grin, Luna decided to give a demonstration. "Hogwarts: A History, page 216..."

Hermione in wide eyes recited. "Helena, daughter of Rowena Ravenclaw, was rumored to..." she trailed off.

Luna was having trouble not laughing as she could see that Hermione was pouring over the page in her mind. Hermione did not stop until she noticed both Harry and Luna were staring at her, to which she hung her head while giving a sheepish smile at being caught.

Hermione frowned a little, while running through a few other things in her mind to test her new mental prowess. Concluding that it was an incredible boon, if it was not for the fact that the timeloops gave them a chance to save lives and a reason to spend _a_ _lot_ of time with Harry, the ability would be the best result of the timeloops, but as is, it would have to get a third place.

"So, are there any other incredible benefits to these loops?" Hermione looked expectantly at Luna.

"There is one other thing; it seems that your magic gets stronger each time." Luna tilted her head in thought.

"Stronger?" Blurted both Harry and Hermione.

"Yes, it's easier to cast spells and you can cast more of them before becoming exhausted." Luna frowned, for a moment a haunted look flashed in her eyes before snapping back, a half smile on her lips as she continued. "It gets a little stronger each time. How it does, I do not know. It could be that we have more magic available, or that we simply have more experience and cast more efficiently. It might even be a combination of the two, I don't know."

Harry reached for his wand, only to remember that he did not actually have it yet, nor was he supposed aware that he was a wizard at this point in time. Letting out a small sigh as he slumped putting his arms behind him to keep him upright. He wanted to test out this extra strength as soon as possible. Another sigh escaped him as he realized that even with the wand; he was under aged again and could not perform magic outside of Hogwarts. "This is rather frustrating isn't it?"

"Could be worse; imagine waking up after a loop and having to wait over thirteen months before you start in Hogwarts." Just a hint of annoyance had slipped into Luna's voice.

Harry instantly regretting bringing that up, all those loops must have been rather depressing. 'At least she had found a way around it so we can all attend Hogwarts together.' Harry desperately tried to switch topics. "Speaking of waiting, when is Professor McGonagall arriving to your house to inform you that you're a witch?" Looking eagerly at the bushy haired girl next to him.

Hermione looked thoughtful for a moment, the day that she had been told she was a witch had been one of the most monumental days in her life, and one that definitely was committed to her memory. "It is in eight days it seems, the 21st."

"Before your parents know about it, it will probably be hard to spend much time together, but after that it should be doable to spend time at my house for most of the summer." Luna smiled; it seemed like the best solution, there were quite a few things that needed to be sorted out before they started in school in a month and a half.

Hermione looked a little sad at the prospect. "There is also the two weeks I have to spend in Rome." Letting out a small sigh, she really did not want to go to Rome again. It had been a very interesting vacation the first time around, but this time she had seen the sights and honestly, she felt disconnected from the muggle world after seven years as a witch. It was not like with the pureblood families that look down on the muggles, but rather that things were not quite as interesting as magic. She would have to bring a lot of books, grimacing at the thought of the last time where she due to weight limits for the flight were only capable of bringing a single book. It had been Hogwarts: A History of course. She had spent her evenings while her parents were out on the terrace enjoying a bottle of wine, pouring over the book again and again, wanting so desperately to have a place in the world where she fit in.

The first two months of attending Hogwarts had completely crushed her spirit; she had resigned herself to the same existence as she had when she had been attending her private school before the introduction to the magical world.

The train ride, where she had hoped to be able to make friends, had been a bitter disappointment. People had avoided her and she had found herself in a compartment with four others that were completely ignoring her. She had never felt so alone. When Neville had come by the compartment looking for his toad, she had jumped at the chance to help him, in hopes of actually getting a friend. Neville had turned out to be incredibly shy, after they had found the toad; she had tried to talk to him, only to have him bolt with some half-stammered excuse about having to put on his robe.

The hunt for the toad had introduced her to Harry Potter, so it wasn't a complete loss. The boy had unlike everyone else looked at her in wonder. The problem with that was, however, that she had started rambling fast under his gaze. She had excused herself to continue the hunt for the toad, since she was not sure how much longer she could be looked at like that before embarrassing herself. As she had exited the compartment, she heard Ron badmouth her to the boy-who-listened.

It had put her in a bad mood for the rest of the trip. The hat had argued that she had hidden strength and courage. So when the boy-who-listened was sorted into the same house as she was, she became determined to listen to what the hat had said, and use that courage to put herself out there and try to become friends with him.

He had been listening to her on the train, and before they got into the great hall, she noticed he was listening in on her talking about spells with Susan Bones. Of course, during the horcrux hunt they had talked about that, as they had talked about many things in those months, where it had just been the two of them. It had turned out that Harry had been trying to avoid listening to her; not because it was annoying, but she were making him incredibly nervous about the apparent test, that would determine their sorting. So she had spent two months trying to become his friend, her limited experience with social interaction with other children had made it almost impossible, and Ronald was blocking her on every try to make friends.

On Halloween, it had finally been the last straw, she had finally given up, Ron was mean and spiteful and would keep foiling her rather awkward attempts. After running off, came the troll, she almost wished it would just end things right there, herself preservation instincts were much stronger than that feeling, she had been scrambling to get away from it. Suddenly, there he was, the boy-who-listened he was there for her, attacking a troll of all things, just to rescue her. It had steeled her, for him, to become his friend; she would tolerate having to deal with Ron. It had worked too, after the encounter with the possessed professor, Ron had stopped being quite as nasty to her. They had become friends as well, not good friends mind you, but enough that she wasn't imagining throttling him every time he opened that big mouth of his.

Getting back on track with her book problem, she thought about her options. If only she could use her magic, she could shrink all the ones she would want to bring and have them as carry-on. Hermione thought about the bag, she had used for the hunt, it could certainly allow her to bring the sixteen books; she would be able to read in the two weeks. Therefore, to solve her book problem, which she had because she could not use magic, she would just need to use magic...

Hopefully, a solution to the problem would present itself before she had to go on the vacation.

Luna snapped Hermione out of her reverie, it was getting late in the afternoon and it would not be all that long before Hermione would have to go home. It was time to make some plans for the next month and a half before Hogwarts started.

Harry had a meeting with the Headmaster the next day, and then a week left of school before the summer holiday started. Hermione likewise had a week of school left.

They planned to get together again the next day after the visit from the Headmaster, and then things would be too hectic to do anything again before the next Monday. Professor McGonagall would be showing up on a Sunday, and then Hermione would have to spend the entire day dealing with her parents coming to terms with her having magic. Hermione would then try to convince her parents to go to Diagon Alley the following day, where they would meet up to shop. After that, they would try to get together as often as possible at Luna's house. It probably wouldn't be every day, and there was Hermione's trip to Italy, but they could still get a good few days together out of the six week holiday.

Hermione was just glad that her trip wouldn't be until after Harry's birthday. She would have to scheme with her fellow witch about doing something to celebrate.

Harry was going to find Hedwig as soon as they got to Diagon Alley, that way they could keep in contact while Hermione was on her trip.

Xenophilius entered the room. "Okay kids, it's time to get Hermione home."

Luna looked at him. "Daddy, can Hermione come by tomorrow once Dumbledore has taken a look at Harry?" She shot her father a puppy dog look, complete with a small pout and everything. It was almost frightening how efficient that look was, especially how she could make her eyes even wider. Hermione could have sworn that it would not have been physically possible, compared to her normal dreaming stare. Xenophilius of course caved in moments.

"Harry, I would like for you to stay here in the room while I go bring Hermione home, I'm only licensed for side along Apparition for two people." Xenophilius gave Harry a smile as he held out his arms for Luna and Hermione.

Harry flopped back on the bed; he let out a small sigh. It was going to take a while to get used to be treated like a child again. He never experienced what it was like to be an adult in the wizarding world, after he turned seventeen they had been holed up in the burrow, and the rest of the time was spent on the run. There still was quite the difference between being treated like a teenager and a ten year old.

It was strange to have the mind of a teenager in a child's body as well; he wondered what to do about starting at Hogwarts again.

Should he try to become friends with Ron again? His first friend, he was at a bit of a loss on what to do with that. On one hand, it was his first friend, but there was all those negatives speaking against it.

If Ron hadn't become his friend he wouldn't have died in the cave-in. That argument against it was tenuous at best; there was no telling how things would turn out this time around. Luna had mentioned it was the only time; she had experienced Ron dying at that point in time.

There was one big argument against it, Hermione. The evenings and nights spent talking with her in that tent, talking about everything, had made him realized just how horribly she had been treated in the first year. Ron had verbally abused her every chance he got, and Harry had let him. That wouldn't happen this time around, Hermione had turned out to be the most fantastic person he had ever met, he wouldn't trade her for the world.

He decided that the prospect of becoming friends with Ron again would be up to Hermione, how the redhead would treat her. Chances are they would find out on the train.

With whom to become friends with being up in the air, he began wondering what he should do about Malfoy. He would never become friends with that stuck-up prick, but he could try to avoid antagonizing him. He thought back at the first year, together with Ron they had been equally nasty back at the boy. If he tried to avoid confrontations with him, perhaps he could avoid Malfoy declaring him his nemesis and much of what follows.

It would probably be harder than it would seem at first, but the benefits of not having Malfoy hound him, would most likely make up for the work. Perhaps Dumbledore would still be alive by the seventh year. That would certainly change things. It could also result in Dumbledore being killed earlier for all he knew if what Hermione said was true. Perhaps it would be better to focus on the now and worry about everything else when it happened.

Instead, Harry turned his thoughts to the morning's trip to the hospital. The expression on the Healer's face was rather worrying now that he thought about it. It had taken only a couple of minutes to be diagnosed with the concussion and administered the potion. It had still taken twenty minutes afterwards before he was allowed to go.

The Healer had been waving her wand constantly, with a frown that only saw her eyebrows knit more and more as time went by. Finally, she had snapped her eyes upwards to his forehead and Harry could _feel_ the magic put into the diagnostic spellwork that happened there. The Healer had quickly exited the room afterwards and just a few minutes later a trainee had come in and told him he was being released.

At the time, Harry had just assumed that it was because the Healer recognized him, but now he wasn't so sure. There had definitely been something going on. The amount of diagnostic spells that had been casted on him would at least back him on the decision of removal from the Dursley's.

Stiffling a yawn Harry sat up as Luna and Xenophilius entered the room with dinner in hand.

Sitting down around the small table in the room Xenophilius observed his daughter and the boy-who-lived, both devouring their meal as if they hadn't eaten in a decade.

He mused about the moniker the boy had gotten. It was a load of nonsense, the boy-who-lived or the chosen one. Both equally absurd, it was obvious that he was just a normal boy, he was certain there was a rather large Wrackspurt infestation in the Daily Prophet building to come up with that sort of thing. No, Xenophilius knew exactly what Harry was, he was the boy hailed as a savoir and then hidden away from society, and most likely also from really living. It was something he intended to fix.

It was ironic that _he_ would turn out to be the first friend, his daughter had in years, when _he_ caused end of her only other friendship. His little princess had always been playing with the little Ginevra who lived half a mile away. Ottery St. Catchpole was a very small community and Ginevra had been the only other girl her age. As the two girls grew up, they had a falling out, about Harry Potter of all people. Ginevra had been enthralled by the many stories, the publishing companies put out to capitalize on the fame of a person no one had seen in years. Luna had insisted that there was no way the stories could be true when he was the same age as they were. His little princess had always had a good head on her shoulders. Unfortunately, girls of that age were headstrong and the arguments had dissolved into a fight where both had sworn they would never speak to the other again.

Once they had finished eating Xenophilius sat over in a corner to read over some articles for the next issue of the Quibbler to determine which to make the front-page story. Allowing the child to chat the evening away. He frowned a little at how hopeless the wizarding community as a whole was for entertainment, as long as Harry had to stay in the dreary inn, he would at least allow his daughter to be there, spending an entire evening alone would be terribly boring. He often shook his head at the wizarding wireless. A radio as the most modern entertainment, he shook his head at the thought. He was rather proud of the 26 inch television and VCR he had installed in his home, it had been a lot of work to create the spells that would protect the inner electronics from ambient magic, but he had managed it and even created a spell that could provide the needed 230 volts fluctuating fifty times a second. The outlet required a small amount of magic to be replenished once a week, but as a whole, it had been worth the work.

He had often shaken his head at some of the stuff his neighbor had been up to, the man had no idea of how electricity worked, and couldn't even pronounce it correctly. It was Arthur that had gotten him into it, a little over a half year ago Xenophilius had been fighting off a depression from the death of his wife. He had thrown himself into his work with The Quibbler. One afternoon he had been over at the Weasley's place, Arthur had shown him a device he had found, and claimed it showed pictures that moved, just like wizarding photographs. Arthur of course couldn't figure out how it worked, and had given Xenophilius the small 8 inch travel television. Xenophilius was not as naive about the muggle world, and it was a very interesting device, so instead he had gone out into London and purchased a few books on electronics. After creating the spells to run the small television, he decided to buy a proper one and the sales clerk had convinced him he needed a VCR as well.

The trip into muggle London had amused him and he had since taken quite a few stints through the town. One on occasion a passerby had called him a hippie, so he had gone to the library there to look up the word. Surprisingly the description was very fitting, so it had probably been a compliment, which had assured him that his clothing style was quite good for wearing out in the muggle world.

The true joy of the VCR had been when he two months ago bought a trilogy that had just come as a box set the previous year. His princess had been incredibly fascinated by the movies and had found a role model in the female lead with the hair put up in those two buns. She had watched the movies so many times that he feared that he might have to go buy another version of the set before she wore it out.

It was getting late in the evening, Xenoplilius had rented the room next to the one Harry was staying in for him and Luna.

It had been a bit disconcerting to see how the boy had tensed up a little, when Luna had given him a hug as they had bid him a good night. What kind of monsters was that family he had been staying with, when that was the reaction to a hug? Well more arguments for the discussion with the Headmaster in the morrow, was the last thought before he turned in for the night.

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**A/N**: Alright that was chapter two of Loopy Lovegood, hope you lot enjoyed it.

I'm a right bastard by the way, it's going to be a long time before I disclose exactly what happened between the two in the Forest of Dean.

In the previous chapter, Luna and Hermione both referenced a Sci-Fi series. In this chapter, two are referenced in relations to Luna, one of them is kinda obvious but the other isn't quite as much even though it is also pulled from a very popular series. An internet cookie to the one that catches it :)

One guess how Luna managed to end up in Gryffindor in the first place before the loopyness started, in relation to the third last passage.

This chapter was not meant to be a bottle episode like that but it kinda happened. We once more barely have any "real" time covered, but don't worry we're almost done with the introduction to the altered timeline. And then maybe we can get to chapters that actually involve magic.

I've had a few people ask if this is becoming a HP/HG/LL story, so figured I'd just address that here.

Short answer: Maybe

Long answer: It might and it might not, I've planned out a good bit of the story so far, but I haven't planned character interactions at all between the three main characters, since that means I can avoid railroading the story instead of letting it develop naturally. It if is natural that they end up in a polyamorous relationship they will, if it isn't, they won't.

If it does happen it is far off into the future so don't expect anything on that front on this side of 200k words.

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Reviews much appreciated, questions about the story are better directed to PM's however.


	3. Chapter 3: Dumbledore's Folly

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Harry Potter or any associated characters.

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**A/N:** Welcome to the third chapter of Loopy Lovegood

Personal disclaimer:

I do not have any beta readers for this story so spelling and grammatical errors are unavoidable. If you find any, you are very welcome to send me a PM pointing it out.

English isn't my first language, so any corrections on that front are very welcome as well

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**Chapter 3: Dumbledore's Folly**

**Harry, Sunday morning, The Leaky Cauldron**

Harry could not remember the last time he had slept so well. He was currently sitting down in the pub eating a large breakfast together with the Lovegoods. Luna looked even happier today if that was even possible, possibly because it had turned out to be real and not some cruel dream. Harry was afraid that if her smile became any wider she might hurt her face.

For Harry's part things were a little muted this morning, he was starting to get nervous about the meeting with Dumbledore. Some of the things Luna had been talking about yesterday scared him quite a bit, especially things about Dumbledore, _The Greater Good_ and the Department of Mysteries. It sounded like that was a rather unpleasant experience, and if he messed up the meeting with Dumbledore it could be not just his fate for years, but Luna's as well. Pitting his occlumency skills against legilimency from someone like Dumbledore would be a disaster, and Hermione would probably not escape either.

Luna looked at him seeing him fret in his seat; she smirked at him before finishing off her remaining egg. "Daddy, we are going up to the room until Headmaster Dumbledore gets here."

Xenophilius just waved the kids off as he shuffled through the stack of articles in front of him looking for one to put on page three.

Luna entered the room first walking into the middle, as Harry closed the door. Luna spoke with her back to him. "Harry..." Pausing for a moment before she turned towards him and in almost a whisper, "I'm sorry," as she looked him in the eyes.

Harry found himself in his mind; it was unlike anything he had experienced before. When Snape had used legilimency on him, he had still been outside and just felt the presence in his mind. This was something entirely different.

He was standing in the middle of a large area; memories of all sorts were drifting over the ground with a silvery mist like appearance. He stepped into one of the floating mists of silver. Harry saw himself sit on a chair in the middle of the tent they had used after they had been fleeing, sorrow painted in his features and he was watching Hermione crying in her sleep on the bed a few yards away.

Harry quickly left the memory again, wandering amongst all the floating memories. He noticed a mist drifting a few yards away; it was more translucent than the rest. Poking his head inside, he saw himself standing with a drop of blood running down his forehead as a blonde girl was trying to hug the life out of him. Recognizing it as the previous day, Harry mused that it probably was what Luna had told him about previous memories being clearer. The images he had just seen had contained many details but he had to concentrate to notice things, unlike the tent where he had noticed everything. From the pattern on the rug, to how a stray lock of hair draped over Hermione's face was wet from tears.

"Harry!" Luna's voice echoed through the area, Harry turned towards the source of the voice and began walking in that direction. A short while later he arrived at a large translucent purpled tinted barrier. Luna was standing on the over side, smiling at him. She clasped her hands together behind her and took a step back looking upwards at the edge of the barrier, letting out a small whistle.

"Impressive, for occlumency." She looked at Harry again. "Superfluous, but impressive none the less."

"Luna, what is going on?" Harry was at a loss at what was happening.

Luna just flashed him a smile. "Oh, we are getting ready to meet Mr. Greater Good shortly. I'm going to help you hide things until you learn to yourself." Letting out a small sigh before she continued. "Unfortunately when I do this I will probably experience a few of your memories and fantasies; I wanted to make sure that it was okay before I started."

Harry looked hesitant.

"I have seen most of them, or a version similar already; there is nothing to be embarrassed about. Even the one with Hermione wearing just that red bow with the gold trimmings." Luna was pointing at a silver mist that was now inching towards the barrier after she had mentioned it.

Harry turned to look at the mist moving forward slowly. How he managed to blush like that in his own mind, he did not know, but his ears and face felt like they were on fire.

Luna just gave him a cheeky grin. "You know, you always have that one." Shaking her head a little before she continued. "Well there was that one time where someone slipped you a love potion. The fantasy had Ginny wearing just a Chudley Cannons scarf she had stolen from her brother."

Harry sputtered; he felt a little ill at the mental image of the girl he considered a sister. "I did not need that mental image."

Luna just replied in her usual dreaming voice. "I didn't either, but here we are."

Harry nodded, still a little green from the mental image. "Have you been making a habit of reading my mind in the other loops Luna?"

Luna slumped in defeat, it was something she would rather not talk about, but it was a good idea to get it out of the way. Real trust could only be built on truth. "Well since I found out that it reset when you died I thought it might have something to do with you. After I learned to read minds I started reading everyone for a long while to figure out exactly what was going on."

Harry could hear the slight tremble in Luna's voice, he could almost feel the apprehension radiating off her. He recognized the tone of voice it was the same as he had so often when at the Dursley's. Responding to the tripe that came out of Vernon's mouth afraid of being struck or punished. Luna was obviously afraid of his response, he couldn't let that stand. He would never let something like be held against either of his best friends. The only trouble was that Harry was terrible at how to handle feelings. That Hermione and Luna were the only reason he couldn't be called completely emotionally stunted was not lost on him in the situation. He tried to think of what Hermione would do in this situation, an idea struck him, it would have to do for now until he could get Hermione to help with easing the fears of their best friend.

He would take a page out of Hermione's playbook as it certainly worked on him, when he was starting to go into a bout of fear and insecurities. Of course, with a slight change, it wouldn't do if he tried to hug Luna while saying "Oh, Harry!" He ran towards the ranting girl, through the purple barrier, hoping to stop her ranting before she got herself too worked up on self-doubt and insecurities. He stretched his arms out to try to hug her, his hand brushed her shoulder and he stopped.

The black floor and the inky darkness that clung to everything disappeared, he looked behind him, the purple barrier and the silver mists were gone. His mind didn't register the new surroundings at all as he whipped his head back around to look at Luna. She looked terrified, looking back and forth between his hand and his face. Harry looked around to take in the strange sudden change of surroundings. They were standing on a hill covered in grass, the gentle sounds of a small creek were filling the air, and he could make out the tree in the distance and the roof of a house on the other side of the hill.

Looking back at Luna, he managed to stammer out a "Wha-"

Luna just stared at him for a moment then shrugged. As her shoulders came back down the hand Harry had on her shoulders broke contact and they found themselves sitting in the inn room again.

Harry watched as Luna sat with a vacant stare for a moment, before regaining her composure and started frowning. Harry almost burst out laughing at the frown, he had seen it often during their sixth year while they were working on plans to rid the world of Voldemort, it did however look for a lack of a better term, cute on the ten-year-old version of her. It usually meant she was in full on serious mode, something that did not happen often. The fact that she had been dumbstruck for a moment worried Harry a little, Luna was always unflappable.

After a few minutes, Harry decided to break the silence. "Luna, what just happened and what was that place?"

"I don't know how, but you entered my mindscape. Deep into it, even. It's definitely something we have to look into at a later time, for now we are in a hurry, the headmaster is arriving soon."

Harry felt that didn't really answer anything, but he was too nervous about the meeting with Dumbledore to argue, they were indeed in a hurry.

Luna let out a sigh "Once again, sorry, this will be even more unpleasant since we're in even more of a hurry now." As she looked up and caught Harry's eyes.

They were once more standing in the black on black place with the silver mists. Harry moved towards the barrier where Luna had been the last time.

Luna noticed him and gave him a small wave. "We need to do something about this barrier first, it won't do if Mr. Greater Good finds occlumency barriers on someone never taught." Luna walked up to it, and looked at it with her eyes narrowed for a moment. She then poked the barrier with a single finger, it shifted and shimmered, before becoming a purple tinted glass only to shatter into tiny pieces moments later.

Luna noticed the concerned look on Harry's face. "Don't worry, I will show you and Hermione how I do it later so you have the bare minimum ready for Hogwarts to fight off Snape."

Harry relaxed a little; Luna's methods had a certain elegance that the brute force from Snape and the subtle poking of Dumbledore lacked. "Going to remove the barriers of Hermione as well then?"

Luna grinned. "She knows occlumency as well? That is cool, it has always only been you that's been taught. Not to mention that barrier was a lot better than what I've seen."

Harry felt a little embarrassed at the praise. "Well Hermione felt it was a good idea for both of us to learn so we spent a lot of time working on it."

"Well that is great; it will speed up things once we get started later. Now, this will probably feel uncomfortable."

Luna's presence expanded, it was as if she was filling her mind and his head was starting to feel like an overfilled balloon.

All the mists started to float towards two different points. Once everything has stopped moving, the massive presence withdrew back into the body of Luna. She waved her hand to get him to move closer. "Okay, I've divided your memories up, that bunch over there is what you had experienced before this day in the original time around for you. The other stuff is future memories and stuff together with Hermione and me the last two days."

Harry was look in wonder for a moment before Luna continued. "Now we're going to do some things to explain how we meet. You cannot change memories, to do so would be to change the person. Which is why Obliviate is such a heinous spell, you're basically erasing parts of a personality."

Luna waved her hand and a mist zoomed to the spot in front of them. Harry poked his head in for a moment before withdrawing and looked at Luna in puzzlement. "Luna that memory hasn't happened yet, it didn't happen until after I had been accepted into Hogwarts."

"Oh that doesn't matter, there are nothing that indicates time in it, so as long as we place it correctly in the outward chronological order it would seem real, since you have been in here and are aware of it, it will not affect your personality. That wasn't really why I wanted to show you that specific memory however." She once more waved her hand and the mist flew into the group with the _future memories_ again.

Luna withdrew a silver strand from her head, it rapidly expanded to a mist as soon as she let go. Harry went into the memory. It was the same as the one, she had just shown him; he briefly wondered how she had that memory as he watched it unfold.

Harry was hiding in a small bush near a playground, he could hear Dudley and his cronies in the distance, they were looking for him. Harry had gotten good at hiding so he wouldn't get beat up by his cousin. Minutes passed, then a light voice from behind startled him and he was about to bolt. "They are gone now."

Young Harry turned around and saw a girl with blonde hair and grey eyes looking at him with a smile. "You playing hide and seek?"

Harry looked around for his cousin to make sure he was truly gone. "Err, not really."

"Oh, it did not look like they wanted to play either. Do you want to play?" As the girl held out a hand to help him out of the bush.

Harry eyed the hand suspiciously, it was rather small and was attached to a small girl, he supposed that it wouldn't hurt to take it to get back on his feet. The two spent much of the afternoon playing on the otherwise empty playground, eventually ending up with him pushing her on the swing set.

The girl was squealing with delight, urging him to push harder. Then it happened, he kept pushing even after his hands had left her back. Howling with laughter the girl launched herself off the swing when it was at its highest, landing several yards away.

She turned and looked at him with wide eyes. Harry flinched; he was prepared to be called a freak, like he always did when something like that happen. Instead, something happened that Harry had never experienced, the girl ran to him and gave him a big hug. His ears hurt a little from the now ranting voice now in close proximity to his eat which were a tad louder than normal speech. "You're like me! Well not exactly, you're a wizard! I'm a Witch, I haven't met many kids who were also magic. Want to be my friend?"

Harry stood frozen. That was two firsts for him. He had never been hugged before. Just as important, he had never had a friend before.

The girl pulled back, holding his shoulders at arm's length, and then shot him a puppy dog look. Harry had never been hit with one of those before, there was no defense, and there was only one answer to the question. "Yes, I would like that."

The two sat talking for a bit before the girl had to leave, promising Harry that she would come and visit him the next day, and getting the address to the place he lived, which was how he described it, he lived there, but it was never a home.

Harry withdrew from the memory, finding himself next to a smiling representation of Luna. "I never experienced that. That was from my point of view, how could you have something like that, or more importantly why would you have a memory like that?"

Luna just looked at him. "Because that memory is precious to me, it was the first loop after the first time around where I managed to become friends with the three of you even though I was in another house."

Harry blinked. "Three?"

"Yes, Hermione, Ron and you of course." She trailed off. "Oh that is right, I forgot that Ron died in the second year, it was the only time. Usually when he died early, he drowned during the Tri-Wizard tournament. The three of you are amazingly hard to become friends with; I've managed to do so exactly four times if you don't count my original trip through it all."

Harry was about to apologize, but was cut off. "Don't you dare apologizing for that, it wasn't you."

Luna pulled out the memories from the last two days. As the mists had all gathered in front of them, they all split into two, with one of the new pairs going back to the area containing the time travel related ones.

Luna started modifying the memories; Harry snuck a peak at one of the modified ones. It was the one from the previous morning, she had removed the exchange about recognizing her, and it appeared that she had hugged him because he had been hurt instead.

"Why did you split them all in two?"

"Didn't split them, I duplicated them. Cannot modify memories without changing a person, I'd rather not change you, so instead I've made doubles to change, you will keep the original ones, and the new changed ones will be in the package that Mr. Greater Good will have access to." As she stopped waving her hands about at the various mists, she shooed them back to the area with the memories from the before the current date.

"This will hurt Harry, but then we're done." Luna's presence started to fill his mind again, when it felt like his head was about to burst, she started again. The silver mists related to the time travel started compressing, they seemed to cling together and became smaller and smaller. Luna held out her hand and the mists compressed and solidified into a small tin-soldier in her palm. She summoned a mist and went into it. Harry followed her.

It was one of the memories of being in the cupboard. Luna placed the Tin-soldier on the shelf between the two; he had stolen from Dudley many years ago. It was one of those old-timey toys, the bitch and her dog gave him. Dudley never took notice of them missing, as he had no use for what he called old crap.

"Right that takes of that, since the memories are still there, you are still you, but they are hidden so other cannot find them."

"Didn't know you could do that with occlumency."

Luna looked incredibly smug as she replied. "You can't."

Luna was a dear friend, but sometimes, just sometimes she was infuriating as hell. She knew exactly what buttons to push, with both Hermione and him. However, it was rather entertaining to watch when she managed to wind Hermione up for a research marathon.

They exited Harry's mind, sitting back in the inn room. Luna pulled out a pocket watch, the windup kind, since electric watches failed in magical households. Her Daddy was working on a shielding spell that would work on batteries, but it was proving hard, as it seemed to increase the resistance of the contact surface. He would eventually crack the problem but that would not be for another two years, Luna knew the spell, but she couldn't use it as it technically hadn't been invented yet.

"Just in time it seems, you should be able to feel when he uses legilimency, just blink if he is trying to dig too much in the last two days since there are a lot of gaps."

Harry flopped back on the bed, staring up at the ceiling trying to calm his nerves. They were going to pull wool over the eyes of the most powerful wizard in existence. Before he had calmed completely down there was a knock on the door. He jolted upright.

Luna got up and put a hand on his shoulder. "Relax and you will do fine." Before she went over to open the door.

"Good morning Headmaster." Luna gave a small curtsey before she stepped away from the door letting the Headmaster and her father through.

Dumbledore gave her a grandfatherly smile. "Good morning Miss Lovegood, I look forward to see you attend Hogwarts this year."

Dubledore turned towards Harry and strode over to him, as he trust out his hand for a handshake. "Ah, young Harry Potter, it is a pleasure to meet you again, I was quite close with your parents you know." The blue eyes twinkling as they always seemed to do, along with the well-practiced smile he used when dealing with the younger generations.

Harry was silently congratulation himself, he had been hiding behind all the memories that Luna had left unhidden in his mind, and as such it had been easy to have the natural reaction to the handshake, namely flinching. The flinch had momentarily broken the grandfatherly mask the Headmaster was wearing and had shown a brief glimpse of outrage. Moments later he was glad that legilimency could not read thoughts as such, as he felt the gentle probing of the master legilimence.

* * *

_Show me your upbringing._

A seven-year-old Harry sat on the little cot in the cupboard. Perhaps cot was a strong word; it was a piece of plywood with a few blankets on it in lieu of a mattress.

He hadn't meant to do it, it had just happened that a vase had jumped off that shelve on its own. Harry had been blamed of course, it was his fault he knew, and it was always his fault. Idly tracing the well known grain of the wood that made up the walls of most of his existence. He wondered how long he had been in the cupboard, it had happened before he had gotten any breakfast and it was probably past lunch as well. He was feeling very hungry.

The door to the cupboard was opened, a hand trusted his plate into his hands. His plate consisted of a cheap porcelain plate with a large chip on it, exposing a very sharp edge, which more than once had drawn his blood. A large crack was running through the middle, it had slowly been growing since Dudley had thrown the plate a few months ago, causing the chip and the crack. It probably wouldn't be long until the plate broke in two. Harry wondered if he would get a new plate or if he would get food on whichever half was the bigger once it finally broke.

On the middle of the plate was a single potato, it was time for supper it seemed, it was no wonder he was hungry. This particular one was larger than what he normally got; he could detect traces of sauce on it. It had probably been Dudley's. Vernon would wash the sauce off things like that, as he said a freak like him didn't deserve something like that.

He greedily ate the potato. It was good, still a little warm even. It was however not in any way enough to sate his hunger. He was hungry constantly these days, sometimes the hunger was bordering on painful. He knew that something bad would happen if he didn't start to eat more, he could feel it. He would have to do something about that.

* * *

An eight-year-old Harry was standing in the kitchen preparing breakfast. He had come to appreciate certain aspects of his too large clothes. It made him able to easily hide the freezer bag he had in his pocket. In the bag was a mixture of Rise Krispies, Coco Pops and Frosted Flakes, the three sugary cereals his rather large cousin ingested for breakfast.

He was eating enough when he was the one to prepare the food and he had quickly started to offer doing to as often as possible. Soon the family had him preparing most meals.

The cereal was to shore up the stockpile of none perishable food he had hidden in the cupboard, it was the only way he would be food whenever he would be blamed for something.

To only stockpile, things that didn't spoil had been a harsh lesson. The night where he had to endure the smell of spoiled mackerel had been bad.

* * *

Harry was on his hands and knees and panting hard. Dudley and his gang had been chasing him around the school proper. He had just rounded a corner when he stepped on a rock and twisted his ankle. He needed to get away, they had caught him last week and his ribs still hurt. He desperately wanted to get away, and then we was here.

He looked around, it appeared to be the school roof, he had no idea how he got up here. There had been a strange feeling on the world trying to compact him into a little ball, it just stopped and then he was there.

He got up, the ankle hurt like crazy, probably sprained. It wasn't the first time he had to move in pain and he was certain he could soldier through it.

He had once tattled to a teacher after a beating by Dudley, the Dursley's had been furious, it was the only time Vernon had hit him, he had broken his arm in two places and was taken to the emergency room with the pretense that he had been running around and fallen down the stairs. Not wanting to be beaten again he had gone along with it.

The incident had gotten Dudley kicked out of their school, after which he had started in some prestigious private school. There was one day a week where he got out of class much earlier than Harry did, and so it had become a weekly Harry-hunting day.

* * *

A five-year-old Harry was sitting crying in the cupboard, there were no more tears left. Vernon had spent the entire evening telling him the truth about his parents. How his father was a drunk, no good lay about. How his parents had died in a drunken car crash. It couldn't be true, could it?

Surely none of those things he said about his mother could be true how she-

_STOP_

Out in the real world only moments had passed, Harry could see a tear running down Dumbledore's cheek.

* * *

_How did you meet Luna?_

As the scene played out, Dumbledore felt rage at the fear Harry had displayed when he was hiding, the sheer amount of abuse he would have experienced to be that mistrustful of a small girl. He had to cut off the other memories it was too much, especially the last one, how they had put down Lily and James.

Dumbledore had always been a friend of the Potters, when James' father died he had become like an uncle to James. The two of them had spent several evenings over the years talking about everything. James had an incredible mind for spellcrafting particularly in Tranfiguration.

It was through the young man he had been made aware of Lily Evans, an extraordinary young lady, with a gift for both Charms and Tranfiguration. He had been pleased to see the two of them get together.

Dumbledore never had children of his own, he considered the two Potters the closest thing he would ever get to having it. He had planned to apprentice them both, to carry on his legacy. They would get assistant positions on his staff, while he taught them everything he knew.

The war broke out in full, and ruined everything. Neither could sit and watch as the Magical Britain tumbled into chaos. Both signed up for the Auror corps.

After hearing the prophecy and finding out that Lily was pregnant, he had used the most powerful protection he knew, hiding the two away from the world. The other couple that fit the prophecy had been so certain of the protections on the house of the Most Ancient and Noble House of Longbottom, that they had refused his offer for protection.

The end of the war had seen all his plans for the future fall to shambles. Sirius had betrayed them.

Dumbledore had been so angry that he had forced the hand of the Wizengamot and had him thrown in Azkaban forever. He had initially wanted him given the kiss, but that would require a trial. The Fidelius charm was so incredibly powerful that Veritaserum would not reveal it. He couldn't handle the possibility that the traitor would walk on the Imperious Defense since they couldn't prove the magic, so it was life in Azkaban that remained the only option.

Now that he had seen how the son of James and Lily had been treated, he could not help but feel that he had let them down. He would need to set things right, starting right now.

Dumbledore straightened. "You are not ever going to return to the Privet Drive Harry. Xenoplilius has offered to take you in. How would you like to live with the Lovegoods?"

Harry put on his best face of surprise, with a bright smile before responding. "I would like that very much, thank you Sir."

Dumbledore gave him a kind smile before turning around. "Xenophilius, come we have some arrangements to discus."

As soon as the two had exited the room, Harry found himself in a bear hug from Luna. "We did it, you're living with us!"

Harry couldn't help himself and chuckled at the enthusiasm. "Yes, Brilliant."

The two sat down and started chatting about how things would be living in the giant rook the Lovegoods called home.

* * *

**A/N**:

DAMN! Another bottle episode, how does this keep happening?

Time covered in chapters will probably increase over the next few chapters. This one was even slower than the others covering only an hour and a half. I have a dream, a dream that someday I will be able to write a chapter that cannot be counted in hours with your hands.

Dumbledore is a good guy in the story, but he does put the greater good ahead of everything else. it should be noted that at this point in time he does not know that Harry is carrying a Horcrux around in his forehead.

It should be noted that the one with Ginny in the scarf was indeed the cannon, it save for the epilogue did indeed happen.

As some might or might not have noticed I've put up a picture for the story, it was supposed to be introduced in this chapter, but it ran away from me again.

Anyways, the picture contains some clues to the story; translate the runes at your own peril. There will be a proper higher resolution picture linked once we actually get to it in the story.

Reviews always welcome, as are private messages with questions. (I do not answer things if the answer would contain spoilers.)


	4. Chapter 4: Rookeries and Tattoos

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Harry Potter or any associated characters.

* * *

**Announcement**: I now have time to write again, expect this story to be updated several times a week from now on. Readers of Sister Lost, rejoice! It will start back up next week.

* * *

**Chapter 4: Runes**

**Xenophilius Lovegood and Albus Dumbledore, late morning, The Lovegood's inn room**

Xenophilius was furious as he entered the room. "I saw what you did Dumbledore. Using legilimency like that is highly unethical."

"I'm afraid I had to. It was the only way to get to know the full extent of the abuse." Dumbledore's eyes fell, "I saw it all Xenophilius. He has been abused verbally by his aunt and uncle as long as he can remember, they starved him and his cousin beat him regularly. You have my thanks for getting him out of there; I wouldn't have believed Lily's sister to be that cruel if I hadn't seen it myself." Dumbledore sat down, looking as old as he actually was for a moment. "I didn't believe you yesterday, and for that I am sorry. I just hope it's not too late to start making things right."

Xenophilius had a look of sadness in his eyes as he looked at the venerable leader of the light who at the moment was just a defeated old man. "You probably will not ever be able to make things right with the boy, the chance for that was ten years ago, but that does not mean you should not try."

The twinkle returned to the eyes of the Headmaster. "Yes you are right, starting right now." He rummaged through his pockets and found two keys, then handed them over to Xenophilius. "As the new magical guardian, I entrust the Gringotts' keys to you."

Xenophilius looked at the two keys in his hand, and then looked at Dumbledore.

Seeing the unspoken question, Dumbledore smiled. "As you know the Potters are a very old family and have over the centuries amassed quite a bit of wealth, the first key is for the family vault. The second one is for his trust vault. The Potter fortune is of course not in a specific vault, for access to that, the young Harry would have to talk with his account manager."

Dumbledore pulled a piece of paper from his pocket. "This is a list of the required materials for your daughter. It is of course identical to the one Harry will receive in a week, however I would ask if you wait until I have been able to ward your house before taking him out in the public, before then the obscurity should be enough to keep him safe."

Xenophilius nodded "That is agreeable, I had not planned on taking the two shopping until after next week, Harry still have a week left in his muggle school."

Dumbledore just smiled. "I will be by on the next Sunday; it will take a few days to procure the necessary ward stones."

Dumbledore pulled out another paper from his pocket, turning towards the table he withdrew his wand and conjured a quill. Bending over the table, he wrote something for a moment while muttering. "Sometimes I wish I had a shorter name and fewer titles." Turning back towards Xenophilius and handed him the note.

Xenophilius looked at the note as Dumbledore continued. "That is a permission slip, for him to temporarily stay at your house." Xenophilius was about to interrupt as Dumbledore just held up a hand to stop him before explaining. "It ensures that if someone finds out that Harry is staying with you, that you can show that you are indeed permissible to have him there. As Chief Warlock and Supreme Mugwump it is within my right to override the wishes of his current guardians. I will not be filing the papers that transfer his guardianship to you before your place is warded. The change in guardianship is processed and would be publically available the same day; we have to ensure both your family and the boy's safety before Harry Potter rejoins magical Britain."

Xenophilius nodded, he had to agree with the Headmaster. The extra week would help to prepare Harry to the new facts of life for him. There was probably a lot of work to be done with the boy.

When he realized that he was burying himself in work and drifting apart from his daughter, he had done two things. One being his newfound interest in muggle electronics where he had started crafting spells, it made him feel closer to his wife, who had been an accomplished spellcrafter. He knew his daughter was withdrawing from the world, encasing herself in the theories of the magical animals he had devoted his life to proving existed. He had recognized that is might have been an attempt to get closer to him after the loss of her mother, but it was bordering on obsession and she had been withdrawing more from the real world by the day. The magical community did not have any experience with mental problems that wasn't related to magic, so he used what he had learned from his experience with learning about electronics and had sought his knowledge about what was happening to his daughter the same place, the muggle library.

He was surprised to find an entire art devoted to the workings of the mind, he was still having problem with pronouncing the word for it, psychology. So he had studied the subject in an attempt to help his daughter, it was what had led him to contact the Headmaster to enroll his princess in Hogwarts early. The fact that she had friends would help her more than he possibly could over the next year.

This brought him back to the original subject, the boy-who-had-survived-but-not-lived. The extend of the abuse of the boy had broken his heart the prior day, some of the things he had learned in the hospital, from his conversations with him. All indicated emotional trauma that Harry might never recover from. The boy had surprised him however; he had taken the fact that he was magical in strides, and was much livelier than he had expected. There were a few things about the whole thing, which felt off to him, but seeing the three interacting with each other, the previous day he swore to himself that he would let the issue be. They looked like they had been friends for years, and quite frankly his princess needed that, he was sure Harry did as well. Therefore, he would keep his questions to himself to avoid potentially causing friction between them. Even if the Ravenclaw in him wanted to know how Harry had known to stop him from summoning the Knight Bus.

Getting back to the matter at hand, he had one more thing to say to the Headmaster before he departed. "I agree best to keep him out of sight until the wards are in place. I would however like to take him out for a shopping trip in the muggle world, he only has the clothes on his back and I would like to ensure he actually have something to wear for the next week."

Dumbledore smiled, he could tell that letting Harry stay with the Lovegoods was a good decision. He would be cared for there, and it was a step in the right direction, to make it up to the child, he had obviously failed. "That should not be a problem, while there are still remnants of the Death Eaters that would like to get to Harry for vanquishing their leader, a trip into muggle London would not be an issue. With that I bid you a good day Xenophilius; I have things that need to be set in motion regarding young Harry." His eyes twinkled for a moment before he turned and a small popping sound signaled the Headmaster's departure.

Xenophilius slumped onto a chair and pulled out his pocket watch. He idle traced the intricate engraving on the lid before clicking it open. The watch had been an anniversary gift from his wife. He was thankful that Harry had come crashing into their lives yesterday. It had been the one year day of her death, with all that had been going on he had not wallowed in self pity as he probably would have otherwise. It was almost eleven o'clock, shops would be opening soon, and he 'd better go tell the kids to get ready.

**Granger residence, half an hour later**

Hermione was lying on her bed staring at the ceiling. It had been a trying evening and morning. Memories of her sending her parents away, the pain was warring with the relief at having them back. She had tried to tell herself that she never sent them away, now that they were doing everything all over again, but it was futile. Normally her overly logical mind could keep her feelings in check, but the last year had been taxing. It was as if everything was lurking just beneath the surface, waiting to get out as soon as something caused ripples in the water.

Things had been a little tense the previous evening. They saw her as the little eleven-year-old girl she had been. The one that did not have friends, who hid behind books walling off the world for everyone except her parents. Thankfully, they had spent a bit of time the previous day and come up with an explanation for how she suddenly had friends. It was grating on her to be treated like a little girl again, but it was necessary to avoid showing she was different now compared to how she was two days ago from her parents perspective.

She would have to keep pretending for the next few months. Once she got back from Hogwarts, she could be herself again. The nine months away could explain the changes.

Hermione let out a wistful sigh as she sat up on her bed; her thoughts had turned to a certain young man who was now a boy. Apparently not even time could change her feelings about him. The problem of them being eleven and ten again was quite the obstacle, but Hermione was not one to be deterred by having to wait. After all, she had carried the torch for five years.

While Harry was now a boy again the things that had first ensnared her was still the same. He was still Harry, the boy who listened, and kept on doing so. When she was talking to him or even just ranting about something, he would look at her and she had his undivided attention. Before she met him on the train seven years ago, no one had ever listened to her like that. Not even her parents would do so, after a while they would just tune her out.

She had more than once been distracted from what she was talking about just looking into the green eyes that focused on her like the world around them didn't matter. How was a girl supposed to help herself against something like that?

Hermione shook her head to clear her mind; it would not do to dwell on it too long. After all, they were moving forward, sure being sent back into much younger bodies put it a few steps backward, but it also meant that there were not quite as many hormones pumping through her system. Spending so much time in close proximity with Harry in the tent, just the two of them, for so many months had been absolute murder.

A faint pop was heard from outside, her ride was here. Hermione had often wondered what exactly caused the distinct sound Apparition made, questions to teachers and other magicals had been met with silence as if no one had ever considered the cause. Hermione like two theories, the first was the least likely with the movement causing a sonic boom at the destination, like the rubber on a balloon being popped did. The other theory was something with the displacement or replacement of the air, at the departure and arrival.

A knock on the door saw her get off the bed to open it, a wide-eyed Luna entered, her head seemingly on a swivel taking in her room. With a grin, Luna looked at her. "I like it."

Hermione hugged her short friend. "Thanks."

"Although you could probably fit in another bookshelf over there to make the library effect complete." As she had taken a step back, and stuck out her tongue at her friend.

Hermione didn't have much experience with good natured teasing, but she did recognize it as such and decided to play along and let out a heavy sigh. "I _know_, but my parents will not let me get one. I have been on the lookout for a reading lamp with green tinted glass as well, but they are impossible to find."

Luna just smiled at her friend. "Guess what we're doing today." As she bounced up and down from excitement."

* * *

Xenophilius looked at his daughter disappearing upstairs. "I do believe I forgot to introduce myself yesterday, terrible rude of me. Xenophilius Lovegood." As he offered his hand.

Mr. Granger shook his hand. "Adam Granger. Pleased to meet you. I must say it is good to see that my daughter has friends, haven't seen her this happy, since her first week of school."

"I know what you mean; my daughter has been a bit of a loner as well, so it is certainly refreshing."

Adam took a step back with a gesture towards the kitchen. "Want a spot of tea while waiting for them to come back down?"

Adam saw his daughter off from the door. He was glad to have spent a little time talking with Xenophilius, as he assumed that they would probably see much of the Lovegoods if his daughter were any indication, the two girls looked thick as thieves as they entered the kitchen. He had been impressed with Xenophilius, he had shown a level of compassion that was rare these days saving that boy from abuse and then taking him in. It was delightfully cruel to take him clothes shopping with two girls who would get to play dress up with an actual person. Adam wasn't an evil man by any stretch of imagination, but you had to have a bit of a sadistic streak to become a dentist. The image of the boy being dragged around by the two girls gave him the same satisfaction as seeing the face of clients, when they were told they were to have a root canal done.

The expectations of the dentist were shattered by reality. Harry was standing in the dressing room as trying on a pair of pants that Hermione had picked out. It was actually fairly fun. It was a lot faster for than he expected, the sheer speed they moved at while going from one store to the next alone baffled him, he wasn't aware that the girls could move that fast while dragging him by the hands. He had to try on a lot of clothes and show how it fit after each change, but there weren't any time spent browsing for something and they both had a taste in clothes he could agree with.

He exited the dressing room wearing a tan polo shirt and a pair of dark blue khaki pants. The judges panel were looking him over, and both gave the shirt a thumbs down. They had already found all the clothes he needed for school and a few sets that he would grow into over the year, time travel had a few advantages, and they knew that he wouldn't start on his growth spurt until the end of the third year. Now they were working of some every day clothes.

Harry turned towards the dressing room again as he pulled the shirt over his head. The two girls were strangely quiet as he was about to turn and draw the curtain shut to try on the next set. When Hermione started addressing him, "Harry, what is that on your back?"

Harry looked dumbly at the two, there weren't anything on his back as far as he was aware, he had a scar from the Horntail but that wasn't supposed to be there since it hadn't technically happened yet. Hermione strode over and grabbed his arm pulling him into the dressing room with his back to the large mirror, then pointed. "Look."

Harry looked at the mirror, between his shoulder blades three black rings were interlinked with some sort of writing inside them. It looked a little like a tattoo, but it was much darker than any tattoo he had ever seen. Harry was dumbstruck for a moment; there really were only one explanation to this, "I've never seen that before, it probably has something to do with the time travel."

Hermione nodded and looked at Luna, who looked thoughtful, "I don't have one of those."

Harry looked at Hermione for a moment before asking, "Do you have one like it."

"I-I do not know." She turned her back towards the mirror and pulled at the back of her blouse revealing the top of the rings, she instantly let go as if burned. "What the bleeding hell is that."

Harry smirked. "Hermione, language."

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Honestly Harry, now is not the time."

"That has never stopped you before." Harry was doing an impression of the Cheshire Cat.

Luna succumbing to her curiosity had pressed into the dressing room which was getting a little cramped with the chair with clothes of it and now the three of them. She pulled down in her shirt as well revealing the same tattoo. "Well that is new, never had that before." As she smiled at her friends.

Xenophilius had caught on that something was going on and had gone over the dressing room. Amused by the sight of the children pressed together in the small room, "What's all this then?"

Hermione pointed at the tattoo on Harry who had his back to Xenophilius after turning to look in the mirror. "That."

"What?" Xenophilius studied the area she had pointed to, afraid that the kid might have scarring or bruising from the abuse, thankfully Harry's back was free of any marks. "Don't see anything. Now hurry up so I can pay for the clothes, we have one more stop before going home."

The three looked at each other for a moment before Luna whispered. "He can't see it. We need to talk about this later than."

Xenophilius was had shrunk all the bags as they were exiting the store, London was on the verge of becoming a dangerous town to do magic in even without people around. Recently there had been a lot of controversy about closed circuit cameras being installed, He had done an article in the Quibbler about it, as it would become dangerous with doing magic in the open if everything was being recorded, with physical evidence it would be even harder to avoid breaches of the Statue of Secrecy. Because of the article and a previous one he had done on the television, the Department of Mysteries had contacted him to offer him a consultant position about muggle technology and the interaction with magic. He had so far declined it; he had a newspaper to run after all.

He guided the children into the optician, "Right, Harry you're going to get an exam and then we're going to order you some new glasses, I doubt those fit your prescription."

Harry was surprised to learn just how wrong the glasses were for him, once he had tried on the glasses made of multiple lenses to simulate his how the new ones would be; it had been as if a fog had been lifted. He wasn't even aware how blurry the world actually were with his old glasses. Now that he had seen clearly, his old glasses were bugging him. Hermione had been the one to pick out his new frame. It was a titanium wire embedded into the glass, so the frame was only over his nose and at on the sides. Titanium frames were expensive it seemed, Harry had boggled when he learned the price of the glasses and had insisted that Xenophilius weren't the one paying for them. Hermione had translated the pound sterling to galleons for him since he never had money of his own for the muggle world so he wasn't aware of the exchange rate. The bloody spectacles had cost 17 Galleons; the lenses themselves were about 14 galleons with the frame taking up the rest of the price.

"So does the magical world not have any opticians?" Harry looked over his shoulder at the store as they headed back towards the Leaky Cauldron to use the floo. He had never considered that his spectacles given to him through state healthcare five years ago would no longer match his prescription. Not only that, but he had to have multiple strengths in each lens to be able to read properly. He was worried that having a reading field would affect his ability to play as a seeker, and was hoping that perhaps there was a magical solution to the problem. Quidditch was the only real hobby he had and he would like to be able to continue playing once they got started on Hogwarts again. He enjoyed spending time in the library with Hermione and since their fourth year Luna, but there was only so much reading he could handle doing. Of course that might not be the case with the new specs, the optician had said that with his old ones he would become tired and be more prone to headaches as he had to strain his eyes to keep things in focus. So perhaps he could indeed spend all his time reading, but he would love to be able to play Quidditch as he enjoyed the flying and being a competitive person, the rush of victory.

Xenophilius smiled, the boy was obviously very interested in the world of magic, "Well on that particular field the magic community has fallen behind the muggles. With the emergence better and more accurate instrumentation for crafting lenses, the muggle glasses and frames are now vastly ahead of the magical counterparts. Especially as alloys and compounds has become the common place to use in frames. The magic for optics are several limitations, amongst other things is that you can only have a single charm on the glass, meaning people that need multiple strengths such as yourself, would have a subpar experience with magical glasses."

Harry nodded and looked thoughtful for a moment. "You say that it's a charm that is used for it. Can it only be used on glass?"

"Well, you can use it on any transparent medium." Xenophilius grinned. "Well you can use it on things that aren't transparent as well, but as you cannot see through that the charm wouldn't help much."

Harry had a huge smile and walked with a faraway look in his eyes for a minute. Luna and Hermione looked at each other and rolled their eyes. That look could only mean one thing. _Quidditch_.

Hermione never understood his obsession with playing that game; of course with her intense fear of flying she couldn't understand how anyone could enjoy that. Part of her was happy that Harry had something he enjoyed on the side, they spent a large amount of time in the library together, and she had often questioned herself about if Harry enjoyed spending time in there as much as she did. Even with the constant assurances from him that he did like it. Another part disliked it not just, because the sport was dangerous, but because it was time he was not spending with her.

They arrived at the Leaky Cauldron, after a quick explanation on how the floo worked since Xenophilius didn't know that Harry and Hermione knew what it was, they were off to the Lovegood house, aptly named The Rookery.

Luna and Hermione had gone through first, as they arrived, Luna took a step to the left and Hermione arriving seconds later took on to the right. Harry was rocketed from the fire moments later, with the two girls having placed themselves on either side to grab his arms, to prevent the usual tumble on the floor that Harry seemed to suffer every single time.

Harry gave a sheepish smile as he righted himself before brushing sot off his clothes. Xenophilius arrived moments later. "Welcome Harry to your new home."

Harry looked around, it wasn't the first time they had been in the house. To his surprise the room they were in seemed much bigger, it was a large circular room. Harry guessed it was the entire base of the house, one single room save for a door to a room below the stairs that snaked up round the far wall. Harry surmised that it was probably a lavatory.

Luna watched her two companions look at the room in wide-eyed wonder, she knew they had been here before and that it certainly hadn't looked like this. She leaned forwards to pop her head in between them. "Expansion charms."

A small "Oh" came from Hermione.

"You where here while I was a house guest at the Malfoy's right?" Both nodded in confirmation, before Luna continued. "The charm was mummy's idea, she would allow daddy to pick the house if she did the interior."

Harry whispered back, "Then why?"

"A charm like this requires regular recharging, daddy was so distraught that he forgot to recharge it."

Hermione looked at all the things in the large room. "So it seemed so cluttered when we were here, because it was furnished for something much larger then compressed?"

Luna just nodded, as Xenophilius guided them upstairs to the room that was to become Harry's.

Harry went into the room with the now un-shrunk bags to be settled, while Xenophilius headed downstairs again to let the boy get acclimated without him looming over him.

Luna and Hermione wandered off to Luna's room while Harry was sorting his things and carefuly refolding his clothes as he took them out of the bags. After spending so many years being the one who kept order at the Durley's he had become used to things being neat.

Hermione shot a glance at the bare wall where the beautiful mural had been, would be, might be? could be? She hated tense problems at something that had not happened and might not happen, but had happened in another time, made things confusing.

As she turned her head back towards Luna, she caught the girl with her shirt over her head in process of freeing her arms from the garment. As it dropped to the floor her curiosity get the better of her. "Why is your shirt on your floor?"

"Why is yours still on you?" Came the cheeky reply from the small blonde.

"I- Uh- That is-" She sighed in defeat, this was Luna there was no arguing with her, and Hermione removed her own shirt.

Luna grabbed a piece of paper. "Turn around."

Hermione made the connection, her mind had been distracted with the possibilities of large scale expansion charms that she had momentarily forgotten about what happened in the dressing room. She gave an involuntary shudder as small and slightly cold fingers traced the skin between her shoulder blades. Moments later, she could hear the scratching of a pencil on paper.

In that moment Harry entered the room, he had in a single motion opened the door and taken a step in. Hermione was standing without her shirt in just her training bra and Luna standing with nothing up top but mercifully covered by the Hermione standing between her and the door.

Harry sputtered for a moment then mechanically took a step back and shut the door again, turning and then leaning towards the door. He was expecting irate females to come out and hurt him momentarily. All the while trying to erase the picture of Hermione like that from his mind, he would much rather remember her as she was in the tent, when he had snuck in glances at her while in various states of undress, the tent didn't offer that much in the way of privacy. Of course there also was the best memory of the cold and shivering Hermione after the trip into that small lake in the Forest of Dean, where they had both quickly undressed and huddled together for warmth. He held that mental image for a few moments as it banished the younger Hermione from his mind.

A few minutes passed until he hear Hermione though the door. "Harry, you can come in now." He had expected anger in her voice, but found nothing as he entered the two girls were trying hard to keep standing as they were laughing hard as his discomfort.

"Now you have seen us without with out our shirts, turnabout is fair play, drop the shirt Potter." Hermione commanded, still a little winded from laughing.

As punishments go, this was fairly benign, so Harry just shrugged and removed his overly large shirt, he wanted to have a bath and wash out the stink of the Dursley's before he put on his new clothes.

Hermione strode over to him, clasped a hand on him shoulder and turned him around.

Harry could hear the ruffling of paper behind him. Hermione piped up. "It is definitely the same tattoo." Harry let out a small "Ah" at the realization of what they had been doing struck him. He turned around and looked at the paper, marveling at the amount of details Luna had captured from it.

Luna looked at the paper with a thoughtful expression. "Well we all have the same tattoo, it wasn't there before."

"Are you sure that you did not have it before and just did not notice?" Hermione traced a finger around one of the circles on the drawing.

"Yes, it wasn't there before."

"So, where does that leave us? This might be the key to why we are going through loops of time." Harry shrugged his shirt back on. "And what is those snake things?" As he took a step towards them and pointed to the paper.

Both Luna an Harry were looking expectantly at Hermione, who rolled her eyes. "Well it's obviously an Ouroboros." Seeing the blank looks on both, she continued. "It symbolizes rebirth and-" In a small voice. "Ethernal return." Hermione was panicking, what if they were doomed to repeat everything forever.

Both Luna and Hermione was looking a little pale, Harry was having none of that, Hermione especially had a way of coming to some rather depressing conclusions, and would need a nudge to get started again. "What other meanings does it have?"

Hermione snapped out of her panic induced state. "Well it's often depicted in alchemy texts."

Harry smirked. "Wasn't aware that alchemy was taught at Hogwarts."

Hermione shook her head. "It is not, but I researched it a little as Albus Dumbledore is an alchemist of some renown."

Harry's eyes widened. "The frog card."

Hermione copied the expression. Leaving Luna in the dark for a moment before Hermione explained it. "On Dumbledore's chocolate frog card it says that he was apprenticed to the famous alchemist Nicholas Flamel."

Luna picked up the connection. "Whose Philosopher's Stone will be at Hogwarts this year."

That seemed too convenient to be a coincident and Nicolas himself would be at the school at least once during the year, hopefully they could procure some answers.

Harry satisfied that they were at least onto something now moved on. "What about the runes then?"

Luna frowned. "Well they are obviously Nordic in origin; Nordic runes are part of the seventh year curriculum so you two probably don't know much about them. I have had it a few times, but I don't recognize the configuration. They do not form any rune word I have seen before."

Hermione had a gleam in her eyes. "Well we just have to-" Both Harry and Luna cut her off as they chorused, "Research it."

They did not have any material they could use for the research and would be unable to go to Diagon Alley for another week. Therefore, they spent the rest of the afternoon with idle chatter and continued after dinner until Hermione had to go home, in the eyes of the adults she was eleven and she had school tomorrow so she had to go rather early.

**A/N**:

The tattoo on the time traveling three can be found as the story picture but also here in a higher resolution (Link also found on my profile): rl DOT zxr DOT dk /FF/Ouroboros DOT png

20k+ words in and there has been almost no magic, don't fret. Next Chapter titled Introduction of the World of Magic will have plenty.

Also yet another chapter that only spans over hours that can be counted on your fingers. (at least this was slightly more time covered than the others) We will be picking up the pace now until we get to Hogwarts.

**NB**: There is a poll up on my profile that will have an impact on the chapters. It will close in two weeks and will determine if the story will have descriptions of Quidditch matches instead of just being mentioned in passing. (If it is voted to just being mentioned, I will make a companion story to this that holds the actual match descriptions, so voting No Quidditch will not remove any content from the story, and anything that happens during a match that has an actual impact on the story will be in the story itself.)

* * *

All right so, money in the world of Loopy Lovegood.

If one look up a bullion (1 ounce/28 gram gold coin) which is what I assume a Galleon would be based on they go for 1270€ or 1660$ (Using today's values rather not spend the time digging up what the value was in 1991)

These coins are supposedly worth 5 £ according to JKR, so let's be generous as say it's a 1/10th ounce coin and it's 10 carat (417 fine) that's 1270€ / (1 / (0.999*0.417)) * 0.1 = 52,91 € which would be 44.39 £

That is still a lot more than the 5 Pound Sterling she says it should be, I doubt that we'd go below 417 fine, going lower and it would hardly be a gold coin anymore.

Coupled with the fact that a wand, the most important tool for a wizard costs 7 Galleons, it just doesn't make sense if a Galleon is 5£ especially considering there are people using hand-me-down wands.

Then there is the fact that Molly takes out a wooping 1 Galleon out of the family vault, why on earth would she even go down there for a fiver? That is not even enough to feed her family for a day.

The coin should be worth more than the materials it's made from else it will disappear from circulation due to people melting it down, so putting Galleons to be worth 50£, that makes a Sickle 2.92£ and a Knut 0.10£

Private Messages welcome as well if you have questions about the story, I will answer everything that doesn't have spoilers in the answer.

Keep it up with the reviews, much appreciated.


	5. Chapter 5: Sleepless

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Harry Potter or any associated characters.

**A/N:** Welcome to the fifth chapter of Loopy Lovegood

* * *

**Chapter 5: Sleepless**

All round there were people yelling in anger or screaming in pain. The sounds close and yet so distant. The world seemed muted. The pandemonium around her did not matter; nothing mattered now, not anymore.

She had done it, what she was supposed to do, what she needed to do, what she had to do, for her friends.

Now it could all end. She turned and took a step towards the middle of the great hall she had to find him. It was time.

Adrenalin wearing off, the second step caused her much pain, as the burn on her left side got jarred. It felt like the fire was still burning her, the pain sharpening the world for a moment before the light haze seemed to fall over her senses again.

The third step took her to the small form of someone she knew well. Her childhood friend later estranged only to reconnect after they started school and they had been like sisters since. The red hair splayed on the roughly hewn stone, matted with blood. The brown eyes open staring into nothingness, glassy and devoid of life.

On the fourth step the wound trailing along her collarbone reopened, a trickle of blood seeping down to join the Gryffindor Red on her robes, soaking one of the only spots on her robes that was not already soaked in it.

The blood, she was now acutely aware of it, how her robe and her clothes were soaked through with it, and as she took the fifth step towards the middle, she briefly wondered if the majority of the blood was her own.

She was starting to freeze, even though it was warm in the hall, despair was setting in, she had to find him and quick. The sixth step finally brought him into view. The boy-who-live, the moniker was seemed to follow him everywhere she knew he hated it. It wasn't fitting for one such as him, there was a word, a name, that fit him better, Hero. Her first year at Hogwarts had been terrible. Starting as the same time as her estranged friend, so many intense arguments in their first year, many about the diary her former friend seemed to carry everywhere. After the hero had slain the basilisk and the diary, Ginny had turned to her, and she suddenly had a friend again. The after summer they returned to school. The Hero and his friends had adopted both of them into their group as their little sisters. The trio, the overprotective git, the girl so smart she intimidated most teachers and boy-who-coudn't-stop-saving-people. She had been so lonely after the death of her mother, so she clung to their friendships with all her might.

The day came, this day, the day to end all days. She would do anything for her friends, and she had. She had done her part the snake, the serpent, the monster, the horcrux was dead. Her part was done, now it was time for the Hero, time to end the story, so the survivors could live happily ever after.

On her seventh step, she called out. "Harry, it is dead!" Her light voice cutting through the noise of the ongoing battle with ease. Harry caught her eyes and gave her a solemn nod, before turning towards his opponent. The hall fell silent as everyone turned towards the pale snakelike man in the black robes as he raised his wand.

She just smiled, the snake wouldn't win, the Hero would, just like she had conquered her snake, he would conquer his.

The eighth step saw the liquid fire she had been feeling in her right arm for the last ten minutes reach her chest. She looked at her arm, blood trailing down it, over her hand, down her slim fingers and dripping onto the floor. The puncture marks on her arm an angry red where it wasn't covered with blood. She was feeling tired, she had done her job, surely the fates could spare her some rest, yes so very tired.

The ninth step and her heart beat one last loud thud in her chest, and she fell to the floor.

Nine steps to save the world, nine steps to the end of the world.

* * *

Luna jolted awake, she was vaguely aware that someone was screaming. Several seconds later, she realized that she was the one screaming and promptly stopped. She sat up and drew her knees to in to hug them against herself under her nightgown. Shaking and bathed in cold swear. She hated the nightmares, it was always that one, and always on the second night of a loop. She wasn't sure if she had the nightmare the first night of a loop, as that was more passing out from exhaustion than sleeping. Frowning as she recalled the nightmare, it stopped later than it had before, she had felt her body shutting down, pain until the very end. Where it had felt like going to sleep, peaceful and then the smell of grass?

Her line of thought was interrupted as the door slammed open; Harry was standing in the hall, eyes scanning her room for threats. Luna could feel the raw magic rolling off her friend. Typical of him, Gryffindor to the end, didn't matter if he had no wand, if there was a threat he would respond in kind. The lack of a wand certainly hadn't stopped him in his second year against the Basilisk.

He stood tense for a few moments, coiled and ready to spring into action. The tension slowly ebbed, when he was sure there were no threats in the room and he walked closer to her.

Luna pressed her face into her knees; the soft fabric of her nightgown absorbing traces of the tears that had escaped her as she had sat, for the admittedly very few moments it had taken Harry to find his shining armor before charging off to rescue the damsel in distress.

Luna's room was bathed in a soft silver light from the ceiling, which had been painted with magical luminescent paint. It would emit the glow at night if all the people in the room had their eyes open. The paint didn't actually see if the people had their eyes open or closed, but was instead based off the intent of the people in the room. It had taken Luna a while to learn how to allow the paint to read her intent. Her mind was so well protected that nothing could get a read off her.

She saw Harry's brow knit in worry as he approached her bed. A surprisingly soft voice, barely more than a whisper. "Luna, are you okay? I heard screaming."

She would have to congratulate Hermione next time she saw her. Pinocchio had made some good progress on becoming a real boy. Apparently those months just Hermione and Harry in the tent had done the boy a lot of good in making progress to actually express feelings and show how concerned he actually was.

Growing up as he had, most would assume that Harry would be emotionally stunted. They would be partially right, it was however not that Harry couldn't feel or didn't know what feelings were. However, the boy had never learned to express them properly. Which in general lead to a lot of brooding, about positive and negative emotions alike.

Letting out a sigh, Luna straightened a little, while still hugging her knees to herself. She glanced at the bed next to her, inviting Harry to sit down. He would never have done such a thing on his own, but as she looked back to harry she could see he had already moved to do just that. It made her both happy and melancholic at the same time, for several different reasons. Apparently, Ronald was a bad influence on Harry, something that she had never considered; Harry wasn't as closed off as he had been in his previous instances. It made her happy for Harry, but sad that Ronald who had been like the big brother she never had, perhaps wasn't good for someone like Harry.

Harry on the other hand was the same and again different, Luna was having a hard time describing it. The boy now sitting next to her was Harry, with all his... Harryness. The strange half-smiles, his body language were almost the same. He was however not the Harry she had met the first time around, she had been a friend of this Harry for three years. It had been strange over all those years she had experienced things again and again, meeting all those versions of Harry, how they differed from what she had been calling the real Harry. The original Harry who for all his strengths and faults had like Ronald been her surrogate big brother.

The Harry that was sitting here was now the real Harry, he and Hermione had somehow managed to follow her over the reset of everything and was now there for her. A tear rolled down her cheek, unlike the previous ones from the pain and loss she would experience again and again, this was one of happiness.

She glanced at Harry, he was frowning as usual, and it was funny to watch how that never changed. She should probably answer him before he worked himself into thinking he was the cause of everything as he was wont to do and then start brooding.

"Had a nightmare." Harry just looked at her, the sympathy painted on the softening features of his face, if anyone could understand nightmares it was Harry.

"It is fine now; I was just reliving something unpleasant." A pregnant pause fell between them for a moment. "I'm sorry for waking you."

Harry just shook his head. "You didn't, I couldn't sleep. Think your dad left the doors to our rooms slightly ajar."

Luna smiled that did sound like something daddy would do, she was a little surprised that he hadn't come running, but since he had been busy with everything Harry all day, perhaps he was still in his study working on Quibbler related stuff.

It was a nice try but Harry wasn't going to get away with that. "So why exactly weren't you sleeping?"

The boy next to her froze and for half a minute didn't say anything until he finally relented. "It's just too much; we're given a chance to make everything right. It just seems like an insurmountable task. Ron, Cedric, Sirius and I could keep mentioning names. All dead, we have the chance to change everything, but can we? What if we're just here to push the proverbial rock up the hill only to have it roll down again?"

Luna just looked at him with a sad expression. "You know, I had given up at one point, I was content to just let thing unfold, but I saw the result of what happened when I didn't try, and it scared me. I promised myself that I would try every time, because the alternative of not doing anything and Magical Britain descending into civil war is too scary a prospect if that one time where you don't do anything turns out to be what breaks the cycle. I would rather keep trying to save people. I want to tell both you and Hermione about some of the things I've tried. It will be a while before I can tell the two of you everything though; I still need to sort everything out for myself and what it means that I'm no longer doing it alone."

Harry just nodded. "Hermione and I are now here with you, so you are no longer alone, and with time I hope you can trust us with things like the two of us trust you."

Luna smiled. "I do trust you, but still it is hard for me, and not just reliving all the bad stuff that has happened. It is also in part coming to terms with the two of you and who you are. We have known each other for three years, but I have known you a lot longer and you have been all over the place as a person in my memories. I tried to interfere directly once; you saw the memory with the swing. Having someone else fight all your battles for you didn't make you a nice person. I decided to try to other way around as well, and became your antagonist for five years in trying to toughen you up to do what would be needed to end it all."

Luna paused, trying to put together the words for the next bit of her ranting. "I know you and Hermione, but I also have all these memories that are also you, but not the you that are here now. It is going to take me awhile to sort these memories from each other, the _you_ you and the _other_ you, so I am sure of whom you are now and not the cumulative Harry Potter and Hermione Granger that I have met again and again over the years."

Harry nodded, "I understand." A cheeky grin spread across his face. "Or at least I think I do, you might want to run that one by Hermione as well just to make sure I understood it correctly."

Luna grinned; it was nice not to be alone. "As for all the other things you're worrying about, push them aside for now, worrying doesn't solve anything, besides worry about something, anything without talking to Hermione first is a waste of time. Until we sit down and have a nice long talk about everything, there is no reason to get your knickers in a twist. Now it is time to get some sleep. Good night Harry." As she ushered him out of her room.

Luna crawled under her covers, closed her eyes and retreated into her mind.

She drifted back through her memories of the day, until she found the three of them walking side by side after the shopping trip. Pulling a copy of the image out from the memory, she placed it at the house that looked like a rook in the meadow of her mindscape. The memory of their day was then put inside the avatar she had created. Placing her hands on the image of them she changed it with power, the effect was immediate. The Harry and Hermione of today felt more like the real ones to her, and she set off hunting after more memories of her two friends to fill the avatar. She only managed a couple more before the trance finally gave way to sleep.

* * *

In another part of England, another child had trouble sleeping. Unlike her fellow time travelers, this was however not due to something negative, but rather due to excitement. Hermione was sitting at the desk in her room, sheets of paper were spread out around her and she was twirling a mechanical pencil between her fingers. On the papers were various half-finished lists, she did so like her lists. Her neat and small scrawl was even smaller than normal due to the accurate nature of a mechanical pencil and its obvious advantages over quills and ink. In general, it was a superior writing tool and Hermione was wondering why she had not used them. She quickly concluded that it was because she had so wanted to fit in, but she never really had. She would have to ask Professor McGonagall on Sunday, what the rules and regulations for writing tools were, she could not recall ever seen anything on it. If there were no regulations about it, she would rather use a mechanical pencil.

Ink blots had been the bane of her existence for the first three years until she finally mastered Scourgify the cleaning charm was one of the harder ones on the OWLs, not because of the magic requirement, the charm itself was easy in all it had a simple arithmetic formulae and was easy on power requirement. The hard part of the spell was that it traded simplicity for a larger mental component, and required a certain amount of focus. Vanishing the ink blots without the proper focus or if you didn't know exactly what was written under the blot would lead to a blank area of the paper, cleaning off the blot without remembering exactly what was under it would lead to it being cleaned as well. Back in her third year she had seen a seventh year, which in her hurry and stress about the NEWTs had cleaned all the ink off her paper and had broken down crying afterwards. Hermione while having an incredible memory also had to combat her mind from continuing on with the essay in her head while she was casting the spell and it had lead to a few empty spaces on her essays over the years.

Getting back to the matter at hand, Hermione was currently working on two issues close to her heart. The heading that topped the paper in front of her was "Things to learn". It was what had her too excited to sleep, they had another seven years of school. To say Hermione was a little excited about learning was like saying water was a little damp. During her third year with the Time-turner she reveled in having so much time for her studies, even when it had her run ragged. That had improved after she had dropped Divination, on request by Harry who had been concerned about it and asked her the day after she had cried herself to sleep over snapping at him and being particular nasty. The upside to this was that she had more time to enjoy studying with Harry, spending more time on the two classes she had convinced him to switch to during the summer when they met at the Leaky Cauldron.

She briefly wondered if she could get another time-turner, if she signed up for all the classes again. It might not work when they were sorted into Ravenclaw, it was obvious that time-turners were not something that was just handed out and Hermione suspected Professor McGonagall might have pulled some strings specifically for her. Still, it was something to look into, especially since she had already had the classes before and only really needed to be present for class as she could remember her turned in assignments verbatim. That meant she could use the time for learning other things, or work on other projects with the extra time as she glanced at the paper to the right of the one she was working on, and so she added Time-turners to the another list she had been working on earlier with useful things.

Tapping her pencil to her lip while she was pondering things for the list, she cringed when an unbidden memory surfaced of her doing exactly that in Hogwarts, but with the business end of a quill and her embarrassing scramble to clean herself before anyone noticed. Tapping things that contained ink on her face was a terrible habit, so she had slowly conditioned herself to instead nibble or downright bite her lower lip when she was concentrating.

Her mind was flooded with topics that could be interesting to study, but she was trying to pick a few specific ones after all, there was no reason to make plans beyond the next seven years just yet, and so a limited array of topics would be the best thing to focus on. Considering the trouble Harry had with Occlumency and still was not in any way proficient with it, Hermione had no illusions about the topic being one that they would be working on for a long time. Harry was incredibly gifted at magic and if it took him a long time to get it, it probably would do so for her as well. Harry was faster than her at learning things you could not read your way to. It had been their dynamic for the last five years; they worked to cover the other's weakness. Like Harry teaching her how to cast a corporeal patronus or her teaching Harry advanced transfiguration and conjuration.

Luna was the one that had told them that she would be teaching them to protect their minds and possibly reading others. So Occlumency/Legilimency was the first point on the list, she had made some space under it for other topics Luna wanted them to work on over the summer, she had not told them exactly what they would be working on, merely stating that it would take a few days of preparation before they could be introduced to the topic. For now they should just trying to think of all the things that had happened since they woke, just walking through the day before they went to sleep and making sure to recall as many details as possible.

A desire won out over all the many ideas that had floated around. It was the topic she had been the most anxious to learn out of all, she had pushed the topic to the back of her mind the first time around as it was supposedly something that required a lot of time and not everyone could actually do it. With the possibility of more repeats, or even just the fact that they now had seven years advantage she would now have the time to explore the topic, that had fascinated her so much since they first day she had been introduced to the world of magic.

Hermione wrote down the single word that summed just how incredible the world of magic was. _Animagus_.

She shivered at the thought, she was not sure if there were any limitations on what you could become, but she had always dreamed of becoming a large cat, something proud, like a Lioness. Glancing at the paper to the right once more, 'and Harry?' Hermione thought a large cat suited him as well, gleaming green eyes and black fur. A wistful sigh escaped her, the image of the Lioness and the Panther standing next to each other was a powerful one. She shook her head to clear the image away, with her luck she probably would not even be able to become tabby cat, much less a lioness.

She decided to add another topic that had fascinated her; it had not been something she had wanted for quite as long as being able to turn into an animal, but it was a topic she had started on a little before they had to leave everything behind to hunt the horcruxes. _Spellcreation_.

That would have to do for now, just a glance at the other paper and she would have to get some sleep. If she were tired for a day of school, it would raise too many questions. The letter from Hogwarts would arrive tomorrow as well so she had to be super excited all evening and bounce around pretending to cast spells.

Stacking all the lists she had been working on to put them away somewhere her mother would not stumble on while cleaning, she looked at the list she placed on top, the list that had been lying to her right all evening. The one she could not stop looking at and smile.

It had a simple title, reading simply. "Harry Potter" It was a short list of topics that she needed to work on, if she managed the points on it, things should hopefully progress as she wanted them to on their own.

The first bullet point was something she had already been working on hard, and had made "some" progress on, but the time rest complicated things and she was afraid that all progress on the front was lost and she would have to start over. "Convince Harry that I do have feelings for him, and that it is okay that he returns them."

The second bullet was a continuation of the first. "Convince Harry that nothing would ever be able to ruin the friendship between us."

The first one was hard to overcome because her opponent was Harry's doubt in himself. Living with the Dursleys all those years had convinced the boy that he was not worth loving. He had realized that he could be loved thankfully, but making him stop pushing people away because he felt he was not worth of the love and that people would be better off without him was going to take a long time.

While the second topic had been broached during their year in close proximity, they had grown increasingly close over the years, but the time in the tent had brought them as close as they could be without actually being in a relationship. The fact that they were now children again did put a crimp on attempts to resume that and move it onwards to where Hermione had been wishing their relationship had been for the last six years.

She glanced at the paper once more before picking up the stack and hiding it, clicking on her mechanical pencil she scribbled another point onto it at the bottom of the paper, the ultimate goal, the one she would work towards.

_Tell him you love him._

She underlined it a few times then bit her lip and added. Preferably without your tongue tripping over your brain.

After hiding the papers, she slipped under the covers and drifted off to sleep.

* * *

In the other end of the United Kingdom, a castle hidden in the Scottish Lowlands laid quiet, its halls and corridors empty of the life that it bustled with during the day. A single office in the castle was still lit. The venerable Wizard Albus Dumbledore sat in his chair feeling old and worn. He had been spending the entire day pouring over his old tomes in the quest for old and forgotten wards. He glanced at the scrap of paper that was on the corner of his desk and bend back over the tome he had open. He would create a ward scheme who's like had not been seen since the founding of Hogwarts. He would not fail the young Potter, as he had done once before ten years ago.

He glanced once more at the scrap, picking it up gazing at the scrawl on it. The constant reminder how he failed the two young people he had hoped would one day take up his mantle and lead Magical Britain to a bright future once he had gone onto the next great adventure.

Ten years ago, the young Lily Potter had approached him to seek his aid in hiding Harry from Tom. Albus had considered the approach of protecting the Potters for a while and had come up with a solution, uniquely fitting their predicament. Lily was a charms prodigy and was one of the very few that would ever be able to cast the charm he had been taught by his good friend Nicholas. The Fidelius Charm a spell complex that it was lost in the ravages of time, while the legend of the charm had survived, the knowledge of casting it until Albus had been taught it, had been residing solely in Nicholas and Perenelle.

Albus had been immensely proud when it turned out that Lily had indeed been able to cast the charm on her home, hiding the Potters from the world.

The Fidelius Charm had a few restrictions and weaknesses that made it hard to use correctly. The biggest requirement was that only someone involved in the secret could cast the charm. Meaning only Lily or James would have been able to use the charm on their home. The other requirement that also brought an inherent weakness into play was that the secret keeper could not be directly involved in the secret.

For the Potter family that meant that it had to be Lily that casted it and it would exclude James from being the secret keeper. The two had picked their best friend as the person to guard the location of their home.

He looked at the scrap again. "The Potter family lives at Godric's Ho-" The secret had been divulged exactly as it should be for the charm. The secret keeper should never tell a person, talking brought in the chance of being overheard. Instead, the proper way to do it was to write the information that would reveal the secret down on a piece of paper and then hand it to the person that would need to know it. Once the paper had been read, it was simple to tear the paper, as long as you broke the sentence or sentences that hide the information, the magic would leave the paper and the information would no longer be useable to reveal the secret. The secret had been be witnessed in person, spying on a person through both muggle and magical mean would not have any effect, you have to read the key with your own eyes, or hear it with your own ears, which is what made the charm so efficient. Sirius Black had handed him the paper, showing him that Lily had properly informed their friend on how to handle it. This also revealed that Sirius had to have betrayed them for Voldemort to be able to find them, it was not information Voldemort could have gotten elsewhere.

Putting the scrap back on the paper Albus leaned back on his chair, his joints protesting with a dull ache. Time, it seemed, was catching up with him. It was only a few weeks ago that he turned 110. At the rate things were going he did not expect to live beyond his 125th.

If he had lived a normal life, chances are that he could have lived twice that. Magic slowed down ageing once the body was over puberty. The stronger a person was magically the more it would slow down ageing. Albus had been an exceedingly strong wizard in his youth. Through his friendship with the Flamels he had learned a few things about magic's effect on the body of wizards and witches.

He had learned about many secrets about the body, things that were normally kept closely guarded by the immortal alchemists. He had never learned how to make the Philosopher's Stone, and with reason. Albus would welcome death the day it came and go onwards to the next great adventure. He had no aspirations to live forever.

Two wars where he had been on the battlefront fighting for the light had taken its toll on his magic core and destroying much of the benefit that his strength would have provided. Albus accepted it; he had spent decades making the world a better place that was reward enough for him. It also gave him another form of immortality, he had set his mark on the world and left it changed for what was hopefully the better.

There were other ways to be immortal; many dark wizards over the time had tried to attain immortality through sacrifices and rituals.

There were also natural ways to be immortal. One which was mostly theory but also something that legend told was true of Merlin, was that a person could be so strong that he or she would never actually age once they were in their twenties. With magical potential only increasing as a soul grew older if someone had reached the turning point before twenty, they would never die of natural causes.

Albus was mulling over that theory because of when he had sensed earlier. Once a wizard or witch gained a certain amount of control over their magic they would be able suppressed their own magic and sense the magic around them. A muggle born had once explained the feeling to him, that it was like a wizard or witch went through their lives standing on a lit street looking to the sky. They would only be able to see the stars if all the streetlights was turned off.

He had used his sense to make sure that the abuse the young Potter had suffered when he was younger had not affected his magical core as it had his dear sister so many years ago. What he had found had caught him by surprise. If a normal eleven-year-old wizard was like a candle, then the young Harry was like a large bonfire. Raw untamed magic potential, he had never seen anyone with that amount of power at their disposal at that age. Equally surprising had been the young Luna, like Harry she had an incredible amount of magic, maybe even more so. However, it was calm and serene like she was in control of it completely, that amount of control in an untrained witch was frightening and her age only served to emphasize it even more.

He would have to approach the two young people with the offer of special lessons once they started in school in September. They would need to learn a great many things especially about controlling their gifts. His thoughts were not entirely altruistic. Perhaps there was still time to take on apprentices before going off to the next great adventure. With a smile on his lips, he sank back into his chair. Minutes later, he had dozed off, dreaming of being the mentor for the two children, which had the potential to be the first natural immortals since Merlin.

* * *

**A/N**:

Wewt got that out of my system. As readers of Sister Lost might know, I have a NEED to write evening introspective scenes, this should tide me over for a while so we can get onwards with the story.

Hope the first scene wasn't too strangely written :)

Scourgify is in this story an incredibly hard spell to master, easy to learn, but hard to master. It is part of the fifth year curriculum and so Hermione of course decides to master it during her third. She teaches the spell to Neville during the fourth year, he can cast it, but if he tried to vanish an ink blot chances are he would end up like the unfortunate seventh year. It requires practice and concentration that Neville just doesn't have to use the charm that accurately.

Hermione's fantasy about her and Harry being a Lioness and a Panther is a nod to the excellent Animagus story Vox Corporis by MissAnnThropic. This story however is a time loop story and not an animagus story, so if that is what you are after you are probably going to be disappointed. That is not to say that one or more of the three doesn't become an animagus down the line, just that it will be a subplot if it happens, and not the main focus. Hermione is stubborn, so we will definitely be revisiting the topic down the line, but for now we have a lot of other things that needs to be done first.

The Fidelius Charm is harder to cast in this AU than it is in cannon; it is described there as incredibly complex, but little bumbling Arthur managed to cast it there and that made no sense. In this story at the current time only Albus and the two Flamels are capable to casting it.

The poll result is in (Has been for a while but because I'm a moron at time management and spent way too much time fiddling with the pretty bow that I have tied the timeline into I haven't had the chance to post a chapter where it is mentioned)

There will be no descriptive Quidditch matches in Loopy Lovegood. Instead the matches will be in a companion story by the name Quidditch Gone Loopy (Wow that is a terrible name, better suggestions welcome) The story will follow Harry and his team for practice and three to four matches a year (With the exception of the fourth year, however might have some pickup/friendly games lined up for that.)  
**NOTE**: It is NOT necessary to read this companion story to follow the plot of Loopy Lovegood. If anything of significance happens during a match or practice it will also be detailed here in Loopy Lovegood.

* * *

Reviews and comments are always welcome.


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